


The Humanity Game

by sensira



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Gen, I ran with it, Light Angst, kishimoto gave me a tailed beast temple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10010015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sensira/pseuds/sensira
Summary: With the Akatsuki on the move, the Hidden Villages decide to hide away their Jinchuuriki. Naruto isn’t quite happy when Tsunade cancels his training trip and sends him off to Kumo in the dead of night.Meanwhile in Konoha, Team 7 wakes up to find that Naruto has disappeared without a trace.





	1. Prologue

It’s only after Tsunade has become Hokage when Jiraiya tells her of the Akatsuki’s kidnapping attempt. The thought sends a chill down her spine, that in Shukuba Town, the Naruto could have been snatched away before he could worm his way into her heart.

“They knew about the Nine Tails,” says Jiraiya, frowning. If he thinks it’s strange to see her on the other side of the Hokage’s desk, he doesn’t let it show.

“That could be easily acquired knowledge,” Tsunade sighs. “Itachi is former leaf shinobi, and he was old enough to remember when the Nine Tails was sealed.”

“Locating us in Shukuba Town also wasn’t a coincidence, it was deliberately planned,” Jiraiya muse, stroking his chin. “Though, I’m sure Itachi wasn’t expecting the youngest Uchiha to show up.”

Tsunade leans back in the chair. “What do we know about them, apart from the Itachi encounter?”

“Oh, now that’s even more difficult,” Jiraiya moans. “My spy network turns up almost nothing. There’s no outright leader, no public contact methods, nada. You have to hear from them by word of mouth and that alone. But, we do know that they are a mercenary group for hire, and that they do the kind of jobs Hidden Villages aren’t willing to do publicly.”

“Any idea where they’re based?”

“Hold on, I was getting there,” Jiraiya continues. “Best guess is Kirigakure.”

Tsunade hums. “Kiri, huh? What in the world are they trying to do by stealing Naruto?”

“Don’t pin it on Kiri yet, we still don’t know enough.”

“But we do know that they want the Nine Tails.”

“They said abducting Naruto was the top priority,” Jiraiya begins. “But there are eight more jinchuuriki."

Tsunade tenses as it all falls into place. “They want the Tailed Beasts. Should we warn the other Hidden Villages?”

“We? It’s more up to you than me.” At Tsunade’s flat stare, he continued. “It’s a good idea, but it would sound more legitimate from the new Hokage than from me.”

“I wish I never took this job,” Tsunade groans. “It’ll take all night to write these.”

“You? The Great Tsunade is actually going to do paperwork?” Jiraiya ducks as a paperweight goes sailing over his head. “It’s the end of the world!”

“Get out of my office, you fool, before I toss you out myself.”  

It’s a half-hearted threat and he knows it. Regardless, Jiraiya sails out a window with a wink and playful salute.

The Hokage office is quiet in the late hour, most of the Chunin have already gone home. Even Shizune, as dedicated as she is, returned home with Tonton. It’s strange to see the room from this perspective, to sit in the seat where her grandfather and her sensei once sat. Tsunade sighs in the quiet and rummages around in the desk-that-shouldn’t-be-hers for paper.

There are letters to write.

.

.

.

Suna sends a polite missive, thanking for the warning. Iwa sends back a terse acknowledgement, and that they will keep eye over their Tailed Beasts. Kiri does not respond, but that was to be expected.

It is Kumo, which peaks Tsunade’s interest.

An elaborately sealed scroll arrives from the Land of Lightning within a fortnight, and the Kumo nin that delivers it stresses the sensitivity of its contents: it’s a message from the Raikage.

Despite its elaborate secrecy, it’s delightfully short.

The Raikage thanks Konoha on behalf of his jinchuuriki, mentions they will begin looking into the Akatsuki threat, and that they will be moving their jinchuuriki into a protected zone.

And then, the Raikage extends the offer of protection to the jinchuuriki, apart from the ones in Kiri. The deal includes—

Tsunade drops her glass and it shatters against the floor.

Kumo possess a flying turtle island, which is almost impossible to find, equipped with a Tailed Beast Temple, and two experienced jinchuuriki who would be willing to teach how to completely tame the Tailed Beasts.

_The power of the Tailed Beasts has maintained the balance of power between us for decades,_ finishes the Raikage. _These Akatsuki threaten to overturn the order of the world, and while many of us, myself included, would be eager to see rival villages slip in power, I do not desire to see the result of the Akatsuki taking control._

_If you wish to take us up on this offer, inform the shinobi messenger who brought this to you. If not, burn this immediately._

_No one can know._

Tsunade’s mouth is dry. “Shizune!” When her assistant pokes her head through the door, she says, “Grab Jiraiya, I need him here _now_.”

.

.

.

Jiraiya comes through the window like an ass, but Tsunade ignores and shoves the scroll under his face. “Read this, now.”

“Oh wow, look at the seal work on that,” Jiraiya says, taking it in his hands.

“Be serious, Jiraiya.”

“I am!” He reads it over, and Tsunade watches his face slowly blanch in shock. “You’re kidding me, right?”

He sets the scroll down on the desk with a thump, and Tsunade leans forward. “Does it match up with your information?”

“I mean, I wasn’t expecting this but the Eight Tails and Two Tails are supposedly the most in touch with their Tailed Beasts but—“

“Good,” says Tsunade, twirling a pen in her fingers. “That’s great, because I’m going to say yes.”

Jiraiya makes a loud choking sound. “What! What do you mean? Why?”

“It’ll be good for him to learn about the Nine Tails, and what that really entails, plus—“

“You’d be sending him to Kumo? Kumogakure, does that ring a bell?” Jiraiya shouts. “We’ve been enemies for years, they tried kidnapping a Hyuuga, and we both know they refused to demilitarize after the war! What are you thinking?”

“What I’m thinking,” Tsunade begins, “is that this might be the first step to changing that! If we work together with Kumo, it might change the relationship for the better. Plus, if we don’t send Naruto, I doubt any other village will.”

Jiraiya narrows his eyes. “How would sending Naruto encourage anyone else to give up their jinchuuriki?”

“The Nine Tails is arguably the most powerful tailed beast,” Tsunade says, still spinning her pen. “By sending Naruto, it sets a good example, and the other villages may be more inclined to agree.”

“And what about my training arrangement with blondie?”

“Jiraiya, I’m sorry, but—“

“Just because he reminds you of Nawaki doesn’t mean you get to hide him away for his own protection!”

The pen snaps in Tsunade’s hands. “Jiraiya, how _dare_ you—“

“I owe it to Minato to—“

“What you owe Minato, is to keep his son _safe_.” Jiraiya hushes immediately. “Tell me, do you think you could teach him more about the Nine Tails chakra than an actual jinchuuriki? Or keep him out of sight of the Akatsuki?”

Jiraiya is mercifully quiet, and Tsunade shakes little droplets of ink off her hand.  “How are you going to tell him?”

“He’s due back from the Land of Tea in a few days,” Tsunade says, glancing down at the papers that litter her desk. “I’ll tell him when he returns, and he’ll leave with the Kumo shinobi that night.”

Jiraiya frowns, and then stands. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” and then he leaves through the open window, into the cool night air.

“I hope I do too,” whispers Tsunade.


	2. Departure

Word spreads wildfire. Degarashi Port is liberated; the corrupted Wagarashi family scattered to the wind, and the Wasabi family steps up with a promise of better times.

If you asked Naruto, he’d say the mission was a roaring success.

Sakura was just glad to be home.

Ibiki is considerate enough to help drop Sasuke off at the hospital, where a small squadron of medics usher the other two genin out of the room. Sakura manages to catch the attention of one of them and asks, eyes bright, “Will Sasuke be okay? When can we see him?”

“He should be fine, but we’ll be monitoring him for the remainder of the day,” answers the nurse. Sakura smiles tentatively. “Visitors will be allowed tomorrow.”

The medic nin slips off into the other room, leaving Sakura and Naruto looking out of place with the clean, crisp white of the hospital.

“Hey, Sakura,” says Naruto, bouncing on the heels of his feet. “Do you want to—“

“I’m sorry, Naruto,” she replies. “I think I’m going to pick up some things for Sasuke, to cheer him up, you know?”

“Oh, okay! That’s a great idea!” Naruto sheepishly reaches back to scratch at his head.

Sakura smiles, bright and wide. “Alright, you’ll be there to visit Sasuke tomorrow, right?”

“Of course!” Sakura waves and walks out of sight, leaving Naruto in the eerily quiet hallway. It’s empty here, which is a good thing, Naruto thinks.  It’s never good when hospitals are full.

Naruto scuffs his shoe against the tile. “What am I supposed to do now?” He mumbles to himself. “Kakashi-sensei is still gone, and everyone else is busy—“

He freezes, a wide smile curling across his face, as he recalls the heavier weight to his wallet.

Ichiraku Ramen it is.

Naruto’s feet move on instinct, carrying him to the familiar ramen stand. The Konoha sun beats down, casting the entire village in its bright, warm glow. As Naruto walks through the village, the street bustles with people trying to enjoy the nice weather.

“Hey, Naruto,” calls a voice, and Naruto swivels to try and pinpoint the sound. “Wait up for a second!”

Shikamaru lazily jogs out of the barbeque restaurant on the other side of the street. Naruto glances up towards the restaurant and sends a wave at Chouji and Ino who are peering through the window.

“Hey, Shikamaru!” Naruto says, and his eyes stop at the unmistakable green of the new Chunin vest. “Woah, you got promoted!” 

Shikamaru shrugs, and shoves his hands into his pockets. “It’ll be more trouble than it’s worth,” he sighs. “But it’s not too bad.”

“Guess I have to step up my game,” Naruto grins. “I’ll be Chunin in no time, you just watch!”

Shikamaru cracks a smile. “Speaking of,” he says. “Lady Hokage’s been looking for you.”

“Granny’s looking for me?” Naruto asks, tilting his head. “Did she say why?”

“Nah,” he drawls. “She didn’t say, just that if I see you, I should send you her way.”

Puzzled, Naruto scrunches his nose. “Well, thanks for telling me. I’ll head over there, I guess.”

“No problem, I gotta get back before Chouji and Ino eat all the food.” Shikamaru waves and heads back to the barbeque restaurant, leaving Naruto in the street.

It could be the mission report, Naruto wonders. Sakura and him went straight to the hospital along with Sasuke, and never thought about dropping by the Hokage Tower. For the second time that day, Naruto’s feet take control and lead him to the giant red tower in the middle of the village.  

The lower levels of the tower are a flurry of activity. Chunin and Jonin run around, processing paperwork, collecting pay, taking missions, they are the humming cogs of the Konoha Machine. Up the stairs, the same grouchy Chunin, who’s been manning the receptionist desk since the Third Hokage, waves Naruto in.

Tsunade leans back behind the desk, legs crossed, and reading over a file. Across the room, sits Jiraiya, stormy faced and deliberately facing away from Tsunade.

“Hey, Pervy Sage!” Naruto waves. “You were looking for me, Granny?”

“Don’t call me that!” The two sannin yell in unison. They glance at each other briefly, and Jiraiya pouts and turns away.

Naruto glances at the two of them and awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. “Uh, is something wrong?”

“I’ll let Tsunade tell you, kid,” mumbles Jiraiya.

Tsunade sighs loudly. “Nothing’s wrong, Naruto. Jiraiya’s just acting like a child.” She gestures him closer. “There’s some important business I have to tell you.”

Naruto’s face lights up. “What?” He babbles. “Did you promote me? Are you sending me on some super cool mission or did you find out how to fix that weird seal thing on Sasuke—“

“Naruto,” Tsunade interrupts. “You don’t have to guess, I’m going to tell you.” Naruto leans forward, eyes wide with excitement. “We’re sending you to train with the Kumogakure jinchuuriki.”

“I’m going to Kumo?” Naruto repeats to himself. “To train with the fox?”

Tsunade nods, and Jiraiya watches Naruto’s expression out of the corner of his eye. “That’s so cool!” Naruto yells suddenly. “I bet none of the other genin have been to Kumo before! Wait till I tell Sakura. Sasuke’s gonna be so—“

“Naruto,” Tsunade interrupts, and Jiraiya frowns. “You can’t tell anyone about this.”

The orange genin’s face morphs from excitement to confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Part of the reason is to help you gain control over your Tailed Beast,” Tsunade answers. “The other half is to get the Akatsuki off your trail.”

“You mean Sasuke’s older brother?”

“Yes. From what we can understand, they wanted to steal the Nine Tails, and use it for their own gains.” Tsunade folds her arms on her desk, and continues. “To keep them from knowing where you’re being moved, word of this can’t leave you, Jiraiya or I.”

Naruto frowns. “Granny, how long are you sending me there for?”

“At least a year,” Tsunade tries to ignore Naruto’s flinch and the heavy weight of Jiraiya’s gaze. “Maybe longer.”

“But what will everyone think?” Naruto cries. “I can’t just let Sakura and Sasuke think I disappeared!”

“We’ll figure that out,” Tsunade says, voice authoritative. “It’s for the best Naruto, it really is.”

Jiraiya stands and crosses the room, clapping a comforting hand on his student’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, kid. It’ll be fine.”

Naruto sighs, face screwed in a frustrated expression. “When do I have to leave?”

“Tonight,” Tsunade announces. “A Kumo escort has been waiting for you for a few days now.”

“But,” Naruto sputters. “I was going to get ramen, and I have to pack and—“

Jiraiya ruffles Naruto’s blonde locks. “C’mon, I’ll help you pack.”

“Bring him to the North Gate at eleven, Jiraiya,” Tsunade calls, watching Jiraiya lead Naruto towards the doors.

Before they leave, Naruto stops, “By the way, where is Kumo anyway?”

At Tsunade’s gaping expression, Jiraiya bursts out into sharp barks of laughter. “I’ll get you caught up, let’s get going.”

.

.

.

Naruto’s apartment bears every sign that an adolescent lives there: dirty laundry, old ramen cups, and all his possessions scattered around haphazardly. Jiraiya sits atop the kitchen table, in the middle of the maelstrom that is Uzumaki Naruto.

“Are you really going to pack that?”

“Yes,” Naruto replies, holding a potted plant. “It won’t survive without me.”

“Guess I can’t argue with that,” Jiraiya replies. “Did you pack ration bars?”

“Don’t have any,” Naruto answers, and then pouts. “You know, I thought you were taking me on a training trip, what happened?”

Jiraiya winces, and tensely smiles. “Tsunade, Tsunade happened. She always does.”

“If I get back early, will you still take me on one?”

“Of course,” Jiraiya says. “I still plan to, once this is all over. I’ve still got plenty to teach you.”

“Like how to be a pervert, you mean,” Naruto mumbles.

Jiraiya carefully launches an empty ramen cup at Naruto’s head. “What was that?”

“Nothing!” Naruto laughs. “Have you seen my shuriken?”

“I thought I saw them in the bathroom,” Jiraiya comments, and watches Naruto slide and trip over a discarded shirt on the floor. “You okay, kid?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Naruto says, glaring at the offending object.

Jiraiya sighs. “No, I meant, are you okay with all this happening?”

“I guess,” Naruto answers quietly. “It just feels weird that my team won’t know what happened to me. But, I mean it’s kind of cool, to learn from other jinchuuriki?”

“Go finish packing,” Jiraiya. “If you’re fast enough, I’ll buy you ramen before you leave.”

With a loud shout, Naruto runs off, trying to throw the rest of his junk into his backpack. Jiraiya, uncharacteristically wistful, watches with a soft smile.

.

.

.

The gate is quiet, when they arrive. Apart from a duo of guards who are carefully looking away, it is only Tsunade and a Kumo shinobi donned all in black who wait there. The night is cool for the summer, with a light breeze that sends leaves flying and goosebumps up Naruto’s skin.

“You made it,” Tsunade says, walking over to them.

Jiraiya shrugs. “I’ll admit, I almost considered taking off with him.”

Tsunade raises an eyebrow, but turns to Naruto instead. “Are you ready to go?”

Naruto takes a deep breath, and smiles. “I’m ready for anything, Granny.”

“Don’t call me that, brat,” she replies. “Be careful, and make Konoha proud.”

Jiraiya rests his hand on Naruto’s head. “See you late, kid.”

Naruto walks over to stand near the Kumo shinobi. She’s tall, and eerily quiet.

“Take care of him” Tsunade says.

The Kumo nin nods, her long blonde braid swishing behind her. “You have my word.” She turns to Naruto, eyes glinting behind her elaborate cat mask. “Follow me.”

She takes off down the road, and Naruto starts running after her, leaving Tsunade, Jiraiya, and his entire home behind him.


	3. The Disappearance of Uzumaki Naruto

Sasuke wakes to warm sunlight that spills over the white sheets of his hospital bed.  Despite the sunshine, and the temperate breeze whistling in from the open window, Sasuke shivers. It’s the beginning of hot, humid summer in Konoha, and the curse mark burns like ice.

“—should be awake by now,” floats a voice from the other side of the door.

There’s a soft murmur that Sasuke doesn’t bother to listen to, before the door swings open. Sakura peers in, and when she sees that he’s awake, her face splits into a bright smile.

“Sasuke! You’re awake!” She shuts the door behind her, and crosses the room with a paper bag resting on her hip. “I brought you some apples, don’t you like those?”

Sakura sets the bag down and sits on the stool next to his bed. As she chatters, Sasuke’s mind tunes out, thinking of his cursed brother, and how he was after, of all people, Naruto—Naruto, who isn’t here with Sakura.

“Where is he?”

Sakura jumps, making an ugly cut in the apple she was peeling. “What?”

“Where,” he says, sitting up. “is Naruto?”

“He said he was coming with me today,” Sakura huffs. “But he didn’t show. Kakashi-sensei must be rubbing off on him—“

Sasuke falls back onto the hospital bed and glares up at the bare tiles of the ceiling. Sakura peels the apple in silence, letting the skin fall in spirals into her lap. She absentmindedly cuts the apple into little slices, and offers one.

“Here,” she smiles softly. “I cut them so they would be easier to eat.”

“Does that idiot think he’s too good to come see me?” Sasuke bites, looking at the apple as if it offends him.

Sakura’s face pinches, and she frowns. “I’m sure that’s not it, maybe something held him up?”

The silence that hangs between them in strained. Sakura opens her mouth as if to speak, but shuts it every time, and lets the apple slices brown in the air.

“I could go find him if you want?” Sakura says, finally breaking the quiet.

Sasuke props himself up on the bed. “I’ll come with you, I want to fight him and I can’t do it here.”  He clambers out of the bed, bare feet against the tile, and jumps out of the open window.

“What!” Sakura cries out, leaping after him. “Fight? Sasuke, you don’t even have your _shoes!_ ”

They head off toward the village, Sakura padding at Sasuke’s heels. The rough pieces of gravel and rock press into Sasuke’s feet, but his face remains as stony as ever. Even outside in the warm Konoha summer, he reminds Sakura of a winter storm on a war path.

“So, you know where Naruto lives?” Sakura asks.

Sasuke freezes midstep. “I thought you did.”

“No?”

Sasuke growls in frustration, and Sakura squeaks. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that you’d—“

“And where,” drawls a voice. “Do you two think you’re going?”

Sakura and Sasuke turn to find Kakashi-sensei perching atop a fence, nose buried in his orange book.

“Sensei!” Sakura cries. “You’re back in the village?”

The jonin shuts the book with a snap. “I am, and I was just about to visit my poor, injured student in the hospital, when I ran across you two. This sure doesn’t look like the hospital, now does it?”

“We were going to find Naruto!” Sakura replies frantically. “He was going to meet me at the hospital and never showed.”

“The idiot probably fell out of bed and knocked himself out,” Sasuke grumbles.

“It sounds to me that you’re just upset Naruto didn’t visit you,” Kakashi’s eyes glint, and his voice hints a smile.

Sasuke scoffs. Sakura manages a cough that sounds like a strangled giggle.

“I’ll take Sasuke back to the hospital later, we just want to check if Naruto’s fine.”

“Alright then,” Kakashi sends a lazy wave. “I guess I’ll leave you to it—“

 “Do you know where Naruto lives?” Sasuke interrupts.

Kakashi grins behind his mask. “I thought you’d never ask.”

With a flash, Kakashi disappears from the fence, and appears in a swirl of leaves behind them. “Follow me!” He sings, burying his hands into his student’s hair, and steering them forward. “It’s right this way.”

Naruto’s apartment sits in the run-down part of the village that separates the commercial district from the residential. Years of faded flyers plaster the walls, and a boarded-up karaoke bar sits silently across the street. Someone still plants flowers, however, little delicate blooms that sprout up from broken pots and colored glass bottles.

The little old woman, who is Naruto’s landlord, waves as they pass through the lobby and up the stairway. Kakashi stops on the third floor, in front of the fourth door, and knocks. Sakura bounces on her feet as they wait, but there’s no response.

“Is he not home?”

“There’s one way to find out,” Sasuke says, kicking up his leg.

Kakashi wrenches Sasuke back. “We’re not breaking the door down. That would be rude.” At Sasuke’s flat glance, he continues. “We’ll pick the lock, like shinobi do.”

The jonin kneels, jams a kunai into the lock and turns, the lock squealing as he does so. Naruto’s door swings open with a pitiful whine. It looks like a warzone, from the clothes strewn across the floor, to a ratty mattress hanging half off a bed, the three kunai embedded in the wall, and the congealing pool of blood in the kitchen.

“Naruto?” Sakura shouts in alarm.

“Stay here,” Kakashi whispers. “Both of you.” Sasuke frowns, craning his neck to see around Kakashi.

He disappears into the tiny apartment, leaving Sakura staring in horror at the trashed room. Even Sasuke, in a rare moment, looks warily concerned. The apartment is small, thankfully, and Kakashi returns after a few moments.

“Was Naruto in there?” Sakura asks quietly.

“No.” Sakura sighs in relief and blinks away the tears welling in her eyes. “No sign of him,” Kakashi continues. “I need to take this to the Hokage.”

Sasuke steps forward. “We’re coming with you.”

“Keep up,” Kakashi replies, and they take off across the rooftops.

When they arrive at Hokage Tower, Shizune, as cordial and polite as ever, informs them that Tsunade had just returned from performing intensive surgery on Rock Lee. Kakashi enters the office, quickly followed by his genin. Tsunade glances up as they do, nursing something that obviously smells like alcohol.

“Kakashi, is there something wrong?” Tsunade sets down her cup, brows furrowed, catching onto the mood immediately.

“Naruto’s missing.” Tsunade’s eyebrows fly up into her hairline. “There were sign of struggle in his apartment, and blood.” Kakashi remains stoic, professional, but Tsunade can see the clench of his fist, the stiffness in his shoulders. Kakashi loses teammates like she does money.

The Hokage exhales loudly. “Shizune!” Her assistant pokes her head in. “Send an investigation team to Naruto’s apartment, stat! Kakashi, will your ninken be about to track the scent?”

“Maybe, the scent might be—“

Sasuke pushes forward, eyes a bloody red. Tsunade notices with a dry snort that he doesn’t wear shoes. “It was Itachi, wasn’t it! He kidnapped Naruto.”

“This isn’t the time, Sasuke,” Kakashi says.

“No,” Sasuke snarls. “My brother took _my_ teammate.”

Tsunade coughs, loudly. “Itachi would be our best guess, we know he was after Naruto a few weeks ago. But,” she begins, looking as Sasuke. “It would be idiotic to try and pursue without actually investigating.”

The Uchiha remains incensed, but his eyes fade back to an inky black. Sakura edges forward. “What can we do to help find Naruto, Hokage-sama?”

“Go help the team at his apartment, you would know the most about Naruto than anyone. Report to me tonight, Hatake.”

Kakashi nods, and turns on his heels, Sasuke following. Sakura who pauses by the door. “Uh, how is Lee doing? Will he be okay?”

“He’ll be back to normal in no time,” Tsunade replies, smiling into her drink. The green genin had cried from joy, and promised to dedicate an entire training regimen to her.

Sakura smiles tentatively, “Thank you,” and follows the remainder of her team out.

.

.

.

When the day is over and done, Jiraiya appears in Tsunade’s office.  “Nice acting today,” he yawns.

“Nice job on the apartment,” Tsunade replies, swishing a brush over a scroll.

“It wasn’t hard, it was already messy, even before Naruto started packing,” Jiraiya comments dryly. He’s perched in the window again, like some lecherous, old bird.

“And the blood?”

“It’s the same blood type as his,” Jiraiya comments idly. “But it’s old enough that the labs will have a hard time getting any conclusive results.” Tsunade hums absentmindedly, and Jiraiya continues. “How did the rest of Team 7 take the news?”

“Kakashi stayed professional, but I know it must bother him. Uchiha is furious, he thinks his brother did it. I can’t tell with Haruno.”

“When are you going to tell them?” Jiraiya’s voice is hard, and just like that, the conversation shifts.

“I’m not telling them,” Tsunade retorts. “At least, not until we know Naruto and the rest of the Tailed Beasts are safe.”

With a sigh, Jiraiya leans against the window frame. “I wish you hadn’t roped me into this.”

“It’s for Naruto’s sake.”

And Jiraiya can’t argue with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to update last night, but I ended up working longer than I thought. Thank you all for the lovely comments and kudos I've been getting! I'm glad many of you like it!
> 
> Next week's chapter will be back with Naruto, and hopefully Kumogakure!


	4. Lessons in Cloudwatching

A cloud drifts across Naruto’s vision like mist, sinking into the fabric of his clothes, and his breath curls into the air. It had been two weeks now, since they had left Konoha, and a painful few days of Naruto clumsily navigating through the strange new terrain.

The air is heavy and wet here, not quite unlike Konoha, but colder, harsher; with a storm always brewing on the horizon. The Land of Lightning earns its name; lightning fractals in the distance, an ever-present companion. From their campsite, Naruto can make out the curving karsts, the towering limestone pillars characteristic of the land, peering out through the mist.

It’s not the lush forests and blue skies of Konoha, but it’s still breathtaking.

The cat ninja, who still refuses to give Naruto her name, says they’re about a day out from the mountain plateau where Kumogakure supposedly sits. She speaks very little, apart from commands, and short, one word answers to Naruto’s chatter.

“Is there a storm coming?” Naruto calls over his shoulder. His voice echoes through the cave, and the Kumo shinobi glances up from the fire she’s nursing.

“Yes, a big one.”

Naruto picks at the rocks. “How can you tell it’s gonna be big?”

“Focus, feel the air.” The other nin tilts her head. “You will have to learn, if you’re staying in Kumo.”

Grumbling, Naruto clenches his eyes shut. “I don’t feel anything. It just feels like air.”

“Try using your chakra, you’re a ninja, aren’t you?” Her voice is tinged faintly with a dry amusement. “Flare it.”

Naruto focuses his chakra, and it hums on the surface of his skin. As the other nin watches, she laughs sharply. “Your chakra control is horrible.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, lady.” Naruto frowns.

“Stop.” The cat ninja approaches, settling down next to Naruto at the mouth of the cave. The sunset is striking against the mist and strange jagged mountains. “I’ll show you a different way. Every person in Kumo learns this, even ninja, before they learn chakra control. Look,” she points up at a towering white cloud. “That’s a cumulonimbus cloud, they always mean a storm is coming.”

“A cumulon-what?”

“Cumulonimbus. All clouds have names.”

“I didn’t know clouds needed names.” Naruto comments, squinting at the horizon.

“We are called the Village Hidden in the Clouds for a reason,” the Kumo nin says dryly.

Naruto scratches his face. “So you can tell just by clouds?”

“No,” she answers. “You can tell by the color of the sky as well. It was red this morning at sunrise, which usually means a storm is coming. When you flare chakra, it’s easy to sense the energy in the air. There will be lightning tonight.”

“That seems really complicated.”

“It’s good to be prepared for a storm before it strikes.” She slinks back to the fire slowly. “You should rest, we set off before dawn tomorrow.”

Naruto clambers to his feet, stretching, and follows. “Why so early?”

“I have my reasons.”

“You aren’t gonna tell me? No fair.” Naruto pouts.

The last vestiges of sunlight disappear, and the other ninja leans back against the wall of the cave. “You should rest.”

“Can you tell me about Kumo? What’s it like.”

“It’s cloudy. Go to sleep.”

Frowning, Naruto goes deeper into the cave and settles against his backpack. “I’m not even tired,” he mumbles, but he’s soon out like a light.

In the middle of the night, a storm rages outside, wind whistling outside the mouth of the cave. A loud clap of thunder rumbles throughout the sky, and Naruto jolts awake, for the countless time that night. Thunderstorms are rare in Konoha, and never as violent. Here, even the ground seems to shake with the force. Lightning strikes constantly, setting trees alight in bright flames that the torrents of rain put out almost seconds later.

Naruto has never felt so far from home.

An ache blooms in his chest, stuttering and heavy. Naruto lays awake, watching the embers of a dying fire cast strange, dim shadows on the walls. He thinks of home, its sunny weather, lush, thick forests. He thinks of Sakura’s smile, Kakashi-sensei’s myriad of excuses, the way Sasuke huffed and mocked but still almost died for him.

The embers of the fire blink out, and Naruto drifts back asleep to the beat of thunder and the slow, rhythmic breathing of the Kumo shinobi.

.

.

.

It’s still dark when Naruto wakes, shaken roughly by the hand of the cat ninja. Naruto groans loudly in protest, trying to roll back over, but she lifts him up by his collar and sets him on his feet.

“Get up, we’re leaving now.”

Naruto blinks blearily and yawns. “Right now? But we haven’t eaten yet?”

“We can eat when we get there,” she replies. “Now keep up.” She takes off briskly, and leaps out of the mouth of the cave. Naruto rubs his eyes and sighs, trudging after her.

Naruto follows her half up a mountain, traversing through rough ridges and prickling mountain plants. The stars still faintly blink in the sky, but the moon is about to set, hovering at the edge of the horizon.

Finally, as the first vestiges of dawn start to appear, the Kumo nin stops in front of a smooth rock face covered in vines, and Naruto almost runs face first into her back.

“Alright,” she says. “We’re here.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asks. “There’s nothing there.”

She brushes aside some of the vines, and reveals a neatly drilled tunnel that shoots through the rock. “Are you sure?” At Naruto’s face of incredulity, she laughs, the sound sharp, and she enters, letting the vines fall back behind her. Stumbling after her, Naruto enters the tunnel, and slams into the other’s arm.

“Close your eyes,” the Kumo nin says, hushed.

“What?” Naruto argues. “Why?”

“Just do it,” she replies, and Naruto clenches his eyes shut with a frown. She leads him through the tunnel, guiding him with a push whenever Naruto strays too close to the walls. With his eyes closed, Naruto can feel the change in air pressure, and the rising temperature, they’re almost out of the tunnel.

The other ninja stops Naruto by his shoulder. “You can open your eyes,” she says, and Naruto opens them.

Dawn breaks over Kumogakure, tinting all the clouds in brilliant pinks and pastel purples. Naruto’s breath hitches, eyes wide, at the view of the village. Half the buildings are suspended like ornaments in the air, balancing on metal beams and wire, clouds drifting through, all pastel pink.

“Welcome to Kumogakure.” Faint amusement tinges the voice of the escort nin. “Follow me now, Uzumaki.”

She leaps forward, long blonde braid streaming behind her as she disappears into the mist of a passing cloud. With a breathless laugh, Naruto leaps after her, plummeting through the pink mist and landing roughly on a platform.

“This is so cool!” Naruto yells, gesturing around. “Is the entire village like this? What’s that fancy building over there?”

“That is the Raikage’s office,” the Kumo nin answers. It glitters like a diamond, hundreds of glass windows refracting sunlight. “And, we better get moving or we’ll be late.” She disappears in a flash, appearing behind Naruto, and hoisting him up upon her shoulder.

“Wait, put me down!” Naruto shouts, twisting in her grasp.

“Now, now, keep twisting around and I might drop you. And let me tell you, it’s a long fall.”

Naruto stops moving immediately, and she takes off into the air, sprinting across wires and beams to the giant building that balances in the center of two mountain peaks. The blonde genin stares in wonder at the valley below. Houses and buildings are built right into the rock face of the mountain, some suspended between the two over a great river which flows thousands of feet below. Other shinobi dart like birds in the air, leaping from platform to platform without a care.

The Kumo nin lands on the roof of the Raikage’s offices, and unceremoniously dumps Naruto into one of the bushes that line the edge of roof. Naruto breathes once, heavy, and stands, almost dizzy in the aftermath. The blonde Kumo ninja sets off, heading down a set of spiraling stairs that leads down into the glass dome.

“Now,” she begins, Naruto trailing after her. “You’re about to meet the Raikage, so please behave yourself.”

“I’m always plenty respectful to those who deserve it,” Naruto retorts, sticking his tongue out.

The other grabs Naruto’s wrist and squeezes, hard, as they stop in front of a massive set of doors. “The Raikage deserves your respect, and you _will_ behave.”

“I will, I will, just let go!” Naruto squeaks, and she releases him, rapping on the door three neat times as he nurses his wrist. The wide set of doors open slowly, and they enter. The Kumo shinobi drags Naruto forward to a massive desk.

“Raikage-sama, I have returned with the Konoha jinchuuriki.”

The Raikage is an imposing man, tall and large, with hair so blonde the grey hairs growing at his temples are nearly invisible. His eyes are dark and narrow, glancing over Naruto with distaste.

“You wear too much orange.”

Naruto blinks. “What?”

“You heard me,” the Raikage answers. His voice is loud, deep and commanding, he cuts an unfriendly figure. “I understand you have been briefed on why you have been brought here, right?”

“I guess?” Naruto trails off, scratching his head nervously.

“You guess?” The Raikage raises one blonde eyebrow and his jaw clenches. “You Konoha ninja are all the same.” He shakes his head and then calls out. “Bring in the others, I’ll speak with them all together.”

Another ninja, also with blonde hair, nods quickly and runs off. For a moment, it is just the three of them, but the large doors creak open once more and five other figures enter the room. There’s a younger version of the Raikage, blonde and dark skinned with a pair of tiny sunglasses, and a man all in red— even his hair is the color, is at his side, sporting an Iwa headband.

A tiny girl follows, bouncing in on her heels, mint green hair flowing behind her. Dwarfing her, is a massive man, wrapped in a blood red kimono, face half hidden by a mask and a large brimmed hat. What catches Naruto’s interest is the familiar red headed boy swathed in the trademark robes of Suna.

“Gaara!” Naruto yells, launching himself across the room. The Suna jinchuuriki rocks, stiff as a board, as Naruto slams into him. “Hi!”

“Hello, Uzumaki. It is—“

“Call me Naruto! How are you?” Naruto interrupts loudly. Across the room, his escort nin sighs audibly.

Gaara’s milky eyes are wide, seemingly unsure how to respond in such a situation. “It is nice to see you again, Uzu—Naruto. I am…well.” His voice is flat, raspy like always.

“Aren’t we excited to meet each other!” Another voice calls, the clone of the Raikage appears, a broad smile on his face. “I’m Killer Bee, gimme a fist bump, fool!”

“Killer…Bee?” Naruto echoes, eyes narrowed, but he bumps his small first against Bee’s larger one. “I’m Naruto Uzumaki!”

The Raikage bangs his fist against his desk, and Naruto, clinging onto Gaara’s arm, glances back over to see the threatening glare of the cat ninja. “Can we get back to business?” The Raikage asks.

“Please,” mumbles the cat shinobi.

“Now, it’s my…pleasure to welcome all of you to Kumogakure. With the Akatsuki on the move, we have agreed to host all of you here, and grant access to our Tailed Beast Temple in order to master the power of your tailed beasts.”

The Raikage pauses, gives all of them a glance-over, and continues. “When the Akatsuki make their move, and they definitely will, we need all of you able to defend yourselves, and keep them from stealing your power. To keep the Akatsuki from discovering our plans, all of you will be moved to Turtle Island. ”

“If this is for jinchuuriki only,” Naruto interrupts, pointing to the ninja with the cat mask. “Why is she still here?”

Killer B breaks into laughter. “You didn’t tell him? The entire time?”

The cat ninja takes off her mask, revealing dark eyes, and smirking red lips. “My name is Yugito Nii, I’m the jinchuuriki of the Two Tails.”

“What! Why didn’t you tell me!” Naruto cries, pointing an accusing finger.  

“It’s foolish to give out your name when a secret organization is after you.”

“Alright,” the Raikage says, exasperated, and slightly annoyed. “Let’s get this over with. We’re sending you to Turtle Island, we’ll check up on you once a week, now _please,_ get out of here before I chuck the orange one out the window.”

That’s all Yugito needs to grab Naruto by his collar and drag him out, the rest quickly following. “Don’t be so hard on him, Yugito,” Killer B calls out playfully.

“He’s not the Raikage’s brother, he can’t act like you do.”

The two Kumo nin settle into a hushed conversation, bickering, and Bee laughs high and loud as the tips of Yugito’s ears flush red. The two tall red ninja, both with Iwa headbands, whisper quietly, at intervals, like acquaintances who have not seen each other for a long time.

Naruto and Gaara trail behind, and the bright green girl flutters up, thrusting a friendly hand forward. “I’m Fū!” Her eyes are the color of honey, bright and saccharine. “I’m from Takigakure!”

“Huh, where’s that?” Naruto blinks.

“It’s the Village Hidden by Waterfalls,” Gaara intones.

“You didn’t know where Takigakure was? It’s right next to Fire Country!”

Naruto hums. “The name’s Naruto Uzumaki, by the way. Don’t forget it!”

“And you?” Fū asks, turning to Gaara. “What’s your name?”

“I am called Gaara of the Sand.”

Smiling, Fū worms her way between them. “Well Gaara, Naruto, since we’re all the youngest,” she begins. “I guess we have to be friends!”

Gaara blinks. “Is that how friendship works?”

“You bet!” Naruto and Fū sing in unison. The green haired girl smiles, eyes twinkling the color of a sunrise. “This is gonna be the best.”

Naruto, his feelings of homesickness temporarily forgotten, is inclined to agree.

.

.

.

Yugito and Bee lead the foreign jinchuuriki up a mountain. Old stone steps are carved into the rock face and spiral upwards until even Kumogakure looks small. The air is thin, whipping against Naruto’s face in chilled streaks of wind. One of the Iwa ninja, the one in the large red hat, turns increasingly green as they climb the summit.

When they finally reach the top, a tight fit considering all seven of them have to stand there, Naruto can hear Fū’s breath catch. A vast sea of clouds spreads below them, reaching as far as the eye can see. The biggest surprise is the giant turtle, larger than anything Naruto has ever seen, that floats through the clouds like water. Thousands of spikes jut from its shell, interspersed with a sea of trees.

“Welcome to the Island Turtle,” Yugito calls over the wind.

Bee grins. “His name is Genbu.”

Naruto’s jaw drops in surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone interested, the arrival at Kumogakure scene was written to this song from the Legend of Korra Soundtrack, specifically when Naruto exits the tunnel and sees Kumo at dawn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQxpwCveg7A
> 
> This was a really fun chapter to write, thanks again for all the sweet and amazing comments, kudos and bookmarks!
> 
> Next week we will be back with the Konoha kids! 
> 
> Have a wonderful weekend!


	5. Invitations from the Sound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka. Sasuke gets his hoe ass kidnapped

Tsunade leans up against the railing of her balcony, a light breeze dancing through her hair. The day is pleasant, the summer bringing in warm days and even warmer people. Merchants amicably call out their wares, the entire main street hums with chatter and laughter. The Academy has taken to holding classes outside now, and the shrieking that children can only make fills the air.

The Hokage takes a deep breath, and—

“Hokage-sama, send me on a mission after Itachi.”

Tsunade wants to scream.

“Uchiha, this is the third time this week, for the last my answer is no.”   

Sasuke Uchiha stands in her office, inexplicably having found some way inside. He’s finally dropped his beige grey hospital clothes, and wears the dark blues of his clan shirt. It’s been a familiar sight the past few days, as Uchiha increasingly finds ways to sneak past her security.

“How did you even get in here?” Tsunade asks.

Sasuke crosses his arms, mouth downturned. “Sakura distracted the receptionist.”

Outside the room, Tsunade can hear faint bickering and a muffled crash.

“When are you brats going to leave me alone?” She sighs, it’s like clockwork now, or at least, almost. Kakashi’s two genin vary the timing just enough to catch her off guard every time.

Uchiha launches into a well-prepared speech, obviously rehearsed. It rings of Sakura, her delicate manners, politeness that sounds strained and forced out of his mouth.  “Our sensei has been dedicating himself to tracking Naruto down, and his…friends, and teammates, you have to send us to help.”

Tsunade scoffs. “You didn’t even say please.”

“Please.”

“No.”

Uchiha’s face twists. “If there’s a chance Itachi has Naruto, we _have_ to go after him!”

“You’re a genin, Uchiha,” Tsunade replies, making her way back into her office. “You aren’t nearly strong enough to take on a jonin, so a missing ninja is out of the question.”

Mentioning strength always seems to make the Uchiha tick. “Killing Itachi would make me stronger.”

“It would get you killed. You have a lot more training to do before anyone would ever consider sending you out there.”

“My teacher,” Uchiha begins, incensed. “Is too busy to train me because he’s off trying to find our missing teammate.”

“Find a temporary replacement.”

“I can’t find a replacement. Practically every jonin is out on missions.”

“God, I would train you myself if it would get you off my case,” Tsunade sighs, speaking to the ceiling.

Sasuke’s head snaps up. “Is that an offer?”

“What?” Tsunade sputters. “I was being hypothetical!”

“If you help me get stronger, I’ll leave you alone.”

It’s a tempting offer.

Instead, Tsunade pinches the bridge of her nose. “Get out of my office you little gremlin.” She almost laughs outright at the expression on Uchiha’s face, as if no one has ever called him something so ridiculous before. “And take Haruno with you.”

Sasuke huffs, and leaves the office, stopping in front of the receptionist’s desk. The Chunin is blankly staring at the stacks of ink soaked documents, virtually unreadable, and Sakura stands sheepishly, holding an upturned ink pot.

She smiles as Sasuke appears, setting the ink pot down with a soft thump. “Sasuke! What did the Hokage say?”

“She said no,” he replies, brushing past her. Sakura scrambles after him, chasing his heels as they make their way down the tower.

“What do you mean she said no?” Sakura says indignantly. “It’s not fair, Naruto’s our teammate too!”

Sasuke says nothing, and Sakura herself eventually falls into silence, drifting behind him like a ghost. It’s been a quiet few weeks, with Kakashi gone; Sakura only sees Sasuke on their excursions to pester the Hokage. If anything, he’s been more volatile lately, like a poorly made explosive tag, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Sasuke would never say it, but Naruto’s disappearance bothers him, more so that he isn’t permitted to join the investigation.

“You did well with the receptionist,” Sasuke says quietly. Sakura jerks out of her reverie in shock, blush blooming in the apples of her cheeks.

“Oh,” she rambles. “Thank you, I talked with Ino and she said that Shikamaru could help us out next time. You know, I think—“

Sasuke tunes her out, letting Sakura chatter absentmindedly, and nodding or humming when the moment allows. She talks enough for the both of them, as annoying as it can be sometimes. The sun hovers low in the sky, painted in dark oranges and deep reds, as dusk approaches. Little restaurants clamor with people, and the smell of food permeates the air.

As they walk, one tiny little food stand catches Sasuke’s eye, warmly lit and cozy. He slows, coming to a halt, and Sakura trails off, following his eyes.

Ichiraku Ramen.

The tiny little ramen stand glows in the evening, it overwhelms the rest of the street with the smell of heavy broths.

“Do, uh, do you want to get something to eat?” Sakura asks. “It’s Naruto’s favorite place and all.”

Sasuke almost says no, but instead nods stoically, and the pair of genin enter the tiny stand.

Naruto had introduced them to the owners, once upon a time, when they had tried to catch Kakashi without his mask. The owner’s daughter had flushed red, stammering and smitten at Kakashi’s secret face.

Ayame is beautiful in the way that makes envy hum in Sakura’s chest, with her kind eyes, an earnest face, the sincerity in her every word.

“I know you!” She smiles brightly, waving them over to a seat. “You two are Naruto’s teammates! What can we get for you?”  Ayame hands them both paper menus, well-worn but taken care of.

Sasuke stiffens at the mention of Naruto, but looks over the menu regardless. Ayame leans over the counter, brown hair falling over her shoulder. “How is Naruto, by the way?” She asks. “It’s unlike him to not drop by for so long.”

“He always comes and tells us the most wonderful stories,” Teuchi calls. “Talks about you two an awful lot, you know? Thanks for taking such good care of our favorite customer.”

Sakura’s heart is caught in her throat. _They have no idea Naruto’s missing._           

A pair of chopsticks snap in Sasuke’s hands, wood splinters burying theirselves into the soft flesh of his palms. Ayame jumps in surprise, and gapes as Sasuke storms out of the stand.

“Did we say something wrong?”

“Naruto’s is, uh,” Sakura pauses, worrying the corners of the menu. “He’s been missing for two weeks.”

Ayame’s face falls, and Teuchi suddenly ages as concern and worry falls upon his features. “Are there any leads?” The chef asks. “Where did he _go_?”

“The best guess is Sasuke’s older brother,” Sakura answers. “I think it really bothers him.”

“But how are you doing?”

Sakura glances up, meeting Ayame’s wide eyes. No one’s bothered to ask her about how she felt on the entire matter. Life without Naruto is strange, _empty,_ and it’s eerie to how he had woven into her life over the past few months as genin team. Even more insufferable is the endless waiting for anyone, or anything to turn up with a sign of the hyperactive ninja.

“I miss him.” Sakura admits. “I never considered him to be my friend, but now that he’s not here, I know that he was—is.”

“Here, order something on the house, whatever you like. We’re sorry about everything.”

Sakura glances over to the empty seat beside her. “Actually, can I get two of them to-go? I want to bring some by to Sasuke.”

.

.

.

 Sasuke is alone.

It’s not a particularly unusual thing these days, and it hasn’t been unusual for years now. The difference is, now the feeling is unbearable. It’s annoying how used he is to having his team pestering him, never leaving him to his thoughts. There’s no more team meetings, silly D rank missions, or the unholy screeching of Naruto and Sakura.

The streets to the Uchiha compound are empty. They always are. Stopping, Sasuke leans against a massive tree that’s been there long before he was born. The light of the full moon beats down on him, whole and steady, unlike the emptiness of his family home, and the cavernous hole left what remains of Team 7 since Naruto disappeared. With a bitter taste, Sasuke realizes he misses the idiot. Naruto is bright, annoying in an almost endearing way, though Sasuke would never admit it, less of a rival and almost considered a friend. Naruto who has been missing for so long people have started referring to him in the past tense.

This is all Itachi’s fault.

Gritting his teeth, the seal on his neck flares and _sears_ against his skin—

“Hello there,” a voice coos.

Sasuke glances up in alarm, schooling his features into a threatening glare. Four young ninja stand, surrounding him against the tree trunk, all with the telltale Sound headbands.

“Who are you?”

The first boy, the one with too many sets of arms and a dangerous look in his eye, grins. “I’m Kidomaru, of the Sound Four.”

“My name is Sakon, of the West gate,” echoes another. This one looks pallid, ash grey hair, and lips the color of hypothermia.

“Jirobo.”

“The name’s Tayuya,” finishes the girl with red hair. The quartet stands there, quietly smirking, eyes eerily skimming over Sasuke. As a cloud drifts over the face of the moon, they all disappear, and Sasuke stiffens, looking for a sign of them.

Kidomaru, the one with six arms, appears with a flash, rushing Sasuke with a smirk. As Sasuke launches himself upward to dodge, the white haired one appears, but he lodges a well-placed kick and sends the other flying. The girl arrives, hovering hesitantly beside her teammates, a hand twitching toward a slender silver flute.

Jirobo lands with a yell, and Sasuke twists, kicking Kidomaru towards the other two. As Jirobo lunges, Sasuke latches onto his wrist and throws him at the other three sound ninja. Sasuke smirks softly, watching the flurry of dust as they all collide into each other.

The smoke clears, and Sauke’s eyes widen. It’s a substitution. There’s a sound of sickening laughter coming from behind him.

“I’m sort of in a horrible mood,” Sasuke calls over his shoulder. “If you keep insisting on fighting, I won’t go easy on you.”

“Aw, look at him. So cute, so _weak._ What does Master Orochimaru want with someone like you?”

Sasuke leaps up, and Sakon catches him by the ankle, hurling Sasuke roughly into a rough concrete wall of the Uchiha compound. The four Sound ninja surround him, blocking any escape.

“Come with us,” the red head girl whispers. “Master Orochimaru will give you power.”

Trembling with rage, Sasuke’s curse mark inches across his skin. It sears like fire and stings like ice, painful, and he realizes: Orochimaru is an asshole. The other four Sound ninja wait expectantly, as if they just snagged him hook, line and sinker.

“Orochimaru is an asshole,” he says.

“Excuse you,” snaps the girl, the others clamor in shock and muttered threats. “Lord Orochimaru is the greatest opportunity you could ever have.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Sasuke begins sarcastically, the effect diminished by the coughs that wrack his body. “But I have business here that I have to finish up first.”

Business as in Itachi and Naruto. Finding one means finding the other, two birds with one stone.

“Are you sure?” The spider-like boy in the tree taunts. “It’s no fun if we have to take you by force.”

“I’m not saying it again,” Sasuke replies, voice acidic. “My answer is no.”

Sakon chuckles. “Well, who knows, maybe it _is_ more fun to take you by force.” The four step forward in unison with threatening expressions.

“Sasuke?”

The Sound ninja stiffen, and Sasuke peers up between them. Sakura stands in the street, quivering arms precariously balancing two carryout containers of ramen. Her jade eyes are wide, shocked and scared, flickering between him and the Sound ninja.

“Sakura, stay back,” Sasuke hisses, the curse marks on his skin retreating in shame.

She steps back hesitantly, her kunai pouch is out of reach, and even more of a problem, it’s empty. Kidomaru dashes towards her, wrenching her arms and sending the ramen containers sprawling all over the ground.

“If you come with us, we won’t hurt her,” he grins. He squeezes hard against Sakura’s wrist and she cries out in shock and pain.

Sasuke’s eyes narrow, watching Sakura’s expression. She looks worried, _frightened_ , and Sasuke bites his tongue, nodding.

“Get the seals ready,” calls Sakon. He turns to Sasuke, pulling a tiny vial of small pills. He drops one into his palm, rolling it between his fingers before lunging at Sasuke, shoving it down his throat.

Sasuke chokes, throat instinctually trying to avoid swallowing, by it slips down like liquid fire. The Uchiha bends over in pain, and suddenly, there’s a giant wooden coffin, more like a barrel really, all made in white-washed wood and decorated with elaborate seals.

Jirobo hoists Sasuke up and dumps him in the barrel, sealing him in as his world goes dark.

“What do we do with this one?”

Sakura musters up a watery glare and Kidomaru laughs, and pulses his chakra through his hands. Her wrist snaps, little hairline fractures shooting down her forearm, and he slams her head against the stone road. They leave her there, lying unconscious in a warm puddle of miso broth, and disappear into the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to regret setting half of this fic in Konoha because Sasuke is so so so so hard to write!! Anyways, thank everyone again for the comments and the kudos, it really is an amazing inspiration! This is an early update, I'm going to be very busy with school over the weekend, but the next chapter should be up next Friday or Saturday per schedule. 
> 
> The next few chapters will be focused on Naruto and the rest of the Jinchuuriki, see all of you next week! <3


	6. Cat Fights

Fū laughs in joy when they land. Yugito had sent all of them flying through the air, a one-way collision course with the giant flying turtle that dominates the sea of clouds. She seems to be the only one who truly enjoys it, apart from Yugito and Bee. Naruto screams the entire way down, Gaara is stiff and tense, while the Iwa jinchuuriki hover in states of shock and horror.

Naruto crashes into a branch of a tree, and lands roughly on the grassy shell of the behemoth turtle. The echo of a heartbeat thrums through the earth, and there’s a steady whistle as it takes each breath.

The turtle is alive, possibly the largest living creature in existence. For a moment, Naruto feels incredibly small.

“Wasn’t that cool!” Fū shrieks, laughing, pulling Naruto to his feet. “It was just like flying! I’ve always wished I could fly!”  

Naruto, dizzy from the landing, coughs. “Can we never do that again?”

“Agreed,” echoes Gaara, muffled by his sand, which had leapt out to cushion his landing.

The towering Iwa nin stands like a creaking machine, the heavy metal plates of his armor sliding against the other with a mighty sound. “If someone ever throws me off a cliff again, they have to answer to the Five Tails.”

Yugito grins the way a cat would, all sharp teeth and clever eyes. “No promises.”

The Iwa ninja huffs and it sounds like steam escaping from a pot, almost like a strained whistle, and Yugito laughs, the sound sharp and biting. Everything about her seems too sharp, distant and feral like a stray animal.

It’s an intimidating sight until Killer Bee throws an arm around her and she bristles as he crows loudly into her ear. “Yugito will be nice! We’re all jinchuuriki, yo, we gotta get along!”

Killer Bee’s voice is deep, but playful and loud, and it strikes a chord in Fū, who breaks out into a hopeful grin. Bee catches her eye, tilts his glasses down and winks. “Before we go,” he says, pointing at the Iwa jinchuuriki. “Can you two introduce yourselves?”

“The name’s Rōshi,” says the shorter of the two, mouth barely visible behind the heavy cover of his red beard. There are the beginnings of crow’s feet near his eyes, he’s old for a shinobi, especially for a jinchuuriki. “I hold the Four Tails.”

Towering above them all, the other Iwa nin peers out from the wide metal brim of his hat, honey brown eyes glinting in the sun. “Han,” he echoes. “Five Tails.”

Killer Bee flashes a thumbs up, and releases Yugito. “Let’s bounce,” he raps to a beat. “Before Yugito tries to pounce!”

He turns and heads off into the jungle, ignoring Rōshi’s surprised snort. “He likes to rap,” Yugito says flatly, falling into step.

Bee leads them through the dense underbrush of the jungle, sidestepping the massive bone spikes protruding from the shell of the turtle. It’s easy to forget all of them are suspended on the back of a massive creature with all the towering trees, hanging vines, and the thick layer of moss and fern that blankets everything, even the tree branches. Wildlife peers out from breaks in the brush, glinting eyes that growl softly as they pass, but soften as they notice Killer Bee, leading the party and currently acting as a perch for dozens of brightly colored birds that alight on his shoulders and head.

“Where are we even going?”

Yugito turns back towards Naruto. “Killer Bee is taking us to his house?”

“He lives here?” Naruto asks, squinting incredulously at the dense jungle.

“Technically,” Yugito responds, turning back forward. “It’s his vacation home.”

Killer Bee’s home is nestled up between a pair of towering trees. It is looks like clay, red and brown, shaped into two crooked points that side a domed room, covered in windows. A large sculpture hangs over the door, a menacing guardian made of a carved bull’s head, with large curling horns, wide blank eyes.

They stream through the door single file, Bee at the front, and Yugito at the end. Five jinchuuriki alone on a cosmic turtle, sailing through the sky. Naruto tilts his head backwards, staring up the open maw of the ox head, with its lolling tongue and rows of teeth.

“Alright!” Bee sings. “Welcome to my crib!”

A kotatsu sits in the middle of the floor, adorned with a heavy grey quilt. The older jinchuuriki gravitate towards it immediately, Yugito and Bee settling on one side, Rōshi and Han on the other. Gaara settles across the room, legs folded beneath him, and Naruto sprawls next to him, sinking down the wall, limbs akimbo. Fū perches up on a counter in the kitchen, and Killer Bee leans across the table, and speaks.

“How much do you know about your jinchuuriki transformations?”

Rōshi is tight lipped, hands folded against the table, reluctant to spill his secrets. “I left Iwa years ago to develop my control.”

“But can you do a full Tailed Beast Transformation?”

“No,” Rōshi admits, frowning.

Yugito calls across the room, snatching the attention of the younger jinchuuriki. “And what about you brats?”

“What’s that?” Naruto asks, tiling his head. Yugito sighs and glances towards the other two. Fū shakes her head no, once, but Gaara nods.

“Once,” the red head says. “However, I was not in control.”

Killer Bee nods, and turns to Han, who slowly shakes his head. “Well, that’s enough about that.”

“Alright!” Naruto cries, jumping up to his feet; his outburst surprising the room. “Does that mean we can eat lunch? I’m so hungry. Do you have any ramen? Man, that would be so cool if you did.” Naruto swings open one of the cabinets, and pauses, pouting, at the empty space.

Killer Bee shrugs. “Oh, about that,” he admits sheepishly. “I forgot to send for groceries before, it’ll have to ration bars until I can get someone sent out here.”

Naruto’s face falls, and everyone else almost seems subdued. No matter where you’re from, ration bars are universally awful. The Konoha nin rummages through his pack, tugging out a crumpled ration bar, and reluctantly tears into the hard tack.

As he seethes in food caused displeasure, Yugito crosses the room, long hair swinging behind her, and pauses, towering over the blonde. “When you’re done,” she says, glancing over to Fū and Gaara. “Meet me outside.”

Killer Bee is busy attempting to secure a message, presumably to secure supplies from Kumo, to a leg of delicate bird, with white and blue plumage that looks like a sunny sky. Han and Rōshi are engaged in a hushed conversation, and what little Naruto can catch goes far over his head, boring, too complicated. And so, Naruto all but shoves the remains of his ration bar into his mouth, following Yugito out the door into the misty heat of the jungle.

She is sitting in the middle of the clearing of Bee’s home, legs crossed and eyes shut. As Naruto plops in the grass beside her, she cracks open one eye. “We wait for the others,” Yugito says, and closes her eyes. Naruto huffs, but stays quiet, staring up at the wide blue sky that peeks through the trees, and the strange colored birds that dance between them.

At some point, Fū trots out of the house, Gaara trailing after her, and settles in the grass beside Naruto, who slowly orients himself into an upright position.

Yugito stretches in the sun, the bones in her neck popping loudly. “This forest is full of incredibly delicate wildlife,” she yawns. “Usually, Kumo nin begin to train here after half a year a Chunin. However, due to our presence, it’ll be restricted to keep secrecy.”

“Why are you telling us this?”

“Because,” Yugito answers, fixing a flat gaze to Naruto. “Until something changes, this is now _your_ training ground. Three genin, no matter what’s sealed inside you, are able to stop an attack from an organization of missing ninja.”

From the forest, a massive golden jaguar slinks out from the trees, growling softly. It stalks forward, and curls around Yugito, nuzzling its massive head against the crook of her neck. The Kumo nin pats one hand against its side, all the spots are at least twice the size of her palm.

“We’re going to start small,” Yugito says dryly, and the jaguar breaks away from her, a low roar buzzing in its throat as it stares down the three genin. “No lethal force. Show me what you’ve got.”

And the beast pounces.

Naruto shouts in alarm, and Fū inhales sharply in surprise, springing backwards through the air.

Gaara remains immobile, blank faced and passive, as the jaguar rips out the skin of his throat, soaking her maw in blood.

Yugito doesn’t even blink an eye as Gaara crumbles into sand, but the jaguar looks almost shocked as it flows and curls around her paws, holding her down. The Suna nin appears around a tree, as blank faced as his sand clone was.

The jaguar thrashes against the restraints, prideful and offended. All creatures on the Island Turtle are gifted with chakra, but every feline belongs to the Nibi, and when Yugito inclines her head, Matatabi yowls, and the jaguar breaks free.

The sand slithers across the grass towards Gaara, who stares, eyes narrowed, at the jaguar. The cat steps forward, and Fū and Naruto appear at Gaara’s side, kunai raised. “I’ll take the left side,” Fū says, nudging the blonde with her elbow.  “You take the right, Gaara, can you try to keep her distracted?”

Gaara nods once, and Naruto breaks into a confident grin, two clones popping into existence wearing the same smile.

“Good,” Yugito purrs. Two more jaguars appear from the underbrush, joining their sister.

The teenagers share a look, and they launch forward.

.

.

.

“Man, we’ve been at this for hours, can’t we take a break?”

Naruto collapses in the soft grass, damp with the ever-present mist that the turtle passes through, and Fū follows, panting softly. Gaara remains standing, tense, his sand flowing restlessly around him in agitation.

The trio of jaguars rest in a sun patch, basking in the warm light. They have a few nicked hides, speckled with blood, but are otherwise unharmed, purring softly.

“For normal ninja, perhaps” Yugito answers. “Here’s my first lesson, all three of you are jinchuuriki, cursed with the gift of incredibly stamina. You better start using it.”

“None of you are ready to begin fully attaining the whole power of your Tailed Beast,” Yugito continues, cutting off Naruto’s indignant squawk. “Until then, I’ll be training the three of you.”

Fū leans forward, eyes glimmering like a sunset. “And what happens once we’re ready?”

“ _If_ that happens, I hand all of you over to Bee.”

Softly, and almost imperceptibly, Gaara sighs, but Naruto grins. “Oh man, Killer Bee seems so cool! That’ll be awesome.”

“Enough talk, breaks over,” Yugito says, rising. Naruto yelps as her nails glow a brilliant blue and extend. Ten lovely blades from the tips of her fingers. The cat has claws. And a blood red smile, dark, dangerous eyes that suddenly don’t match color. Naruto swallows hard, scrambling to his feet, Gaara rises.

Fū is awestruck.

“This time, your opponent is me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oOOOH MY HEY IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK A WHILE TO UPDATE!! School got super tough and I had to pay attention to it.
> 
> Thank everyone for supporting this fic! It really means a lot to me! 
> 
> Have a wonderful day!


	7. Recovery

Sakura wakes up dizzy and sick to her stomach, a piercing ache shooting her left forearm. Everything is too soft, from the down of the pillow, to the hand smoothing back her hair. Sakura opens her eyes, waking to the sunny light of a Konoha hospital room. 

“Ah, Miss Haruno, you’re awake.”

Sakura turns her head, and makes of the figure of a dark haired nurse. She smiles softly, and returns to running her hands, humming with green chakra, over Sakura’s arms. 

“What happened?” 

“Oh,” the nurse begins. “Kotetsu found you in the middle of the road, unconscious, with half the bones in your wrist and forearm shattered. It was quite the surprise; do you remember anything from last night?

“Last night?” Sakura blinks, brows furrowed. “I was—oh! I was taking ramen to Sasuke…..” 

Sakura freezes, then shoots up out of bed. The nurse cries in alarm, cutting her chakra flow. The pink haired genin halts as sharp pain flares in her arm, and the other hurries to undo the damage. “Hold on,” the nurse begins. “You need to be careful, I wasn’t done healing you, you can tell me what happened later.” 

“No, no, we can’t!” With her hair a wild halo around her head, Sakura grips the nurse’s arm with her free hand. “Last night, some ninja from the Sound Village kidnapped Sasuke! One of them attacked me, that’s why my arm is broken!”

The medic pales, even her green healing chakra seems sapped of color, but Sakura can still feel the strangely comforting presence of it, reaching down and mending her bones together. “Someone kidnapped Sasuke Uchiha?” She turns, calling out to a Chunin passing in the hall. “Hey, report to the Hokage now, Sasuke Uchiha has been kidnapped.”

The Chunin nods, eyes wide, and disappears down the hallway. “What are they going to do?” Sakura asks. “Will the Hokage let me help—?”

“Hush,” says the nurse, smiling as comforting as she can. “No matter what happens, you won’t be cleared for shinobi duty for at least the rest of the week.” 

Sakura frowns, blinking back tears. “What do you mean? Sasuke’s my teammate, we already lost Naruto—I can’t lose him too!” 

“Don’t worry,” the nurse smiles. “Sasuke Uchiha is a valued member of Konoha, the Hokage won’t let enemy ninja steal him away. That Uzumaki brat, however, was a menace to our village. Trust me dear, you are better off without him.”

Oblivious to Sakura’s blank stare of shock, the nurse pats her arm gently. “Alright, I’ll send someone in here to fix you up in a sling, you need to let your chakra pathways reorient theirselves on their own, and then you should be free to go. Take care!”

The nurse rises, and Sakura has to fight down the wave of anger that curls up in her chest. 

.  
.  
.

Tsunade’s morning goes great up until a frazzled medical Chunin bursts into her office. She had only just finished with Kotetsu and Izumo, who had firstly been late, and then complained about her sleeping on the job.

Being the Hokage is hard, alright? She should have never taken this job. 

When the Chunin reports frantically that the Last Uchiha has been reportedly kidnapped from the village, her morning gets infinitely worse. 

She grabs a messenger, tells them to head to the Nara clan compound, and send her Shikaku’s newly promoted son. 

Shikamaru enters her office within half an hour, looking like he barely just woke up. His Chunin jacket is hastily thrown over a crooked mesh shirt. “Lady Hokage, wh—“ 

“No time for pleasantries,” Tsunade begins. “Last night Sasuke Uchiha was kidnapped from Konoha,” ignoring Shikamaru’s breath of surprise, she continues. “The prime suspect is Orochimaru.”

Shikamaru mulls it over. “If we’re expecting a fight, may I request a team, jonin and Chunin would be ideal.”

“I’m sorry,” Tsunade replies, voice strained. “That’ll be impossible.” 

“What?” 

“I’m sure you already know, over half of our jonin are deployed on missions. We have none to spare.” Tsuande spins her chair around slowly. “I want you to find any capable genin willing to fight. You have thirty minutes. Go, and good luck.” 

As Shikamaru approaches the door, Tsunade pauses, and then calls out. “Actually, I think I have an idea of who to talk to first.” 

The Hokage thinks of pink hair, the insane exam scores in her files, and a dedicated persistence to her friends. 

“Find Sakura Haruno, she’ll have some suggestions.” 

Shikamaru nods, then turns, heading out the door as leisurely fast as he can manage. He realizes, like most girls in his graduating class other than Ino, he knows nothing about her, and has no clue where to find her. Out of all the genin teams even, Team 7 is the most distant from the others, with a distant sensei that failed to show up to inter-team sessions, Shikamaru doesn’t even know where they even train. 

It’s lucky that Sakura finds him first. 

“Shikamaru! Wait!” 

He stops in the street, turning as the pink-haired genin comes to a halt. Her arm is wrapped up in a delicate white sling, cradling her left arm. “Ah, Sakura, I was just looking for you.” 

“So was I!” She answers. “The Hokage is sending you after Sasuke right?” 

Shikamaru blinks. “How did you know?” 

“It’s not hard to figure out. There’s no jonin for the job, and you’re the only Chunin, as new as you are, who is even remotely familiar with Sasuke. Of course she’d give it to you!” 

Struck by her deductive skills, Shikamaru sighs. It’s easy to forget in the face of her loud, exuberant crush on Sasuke, that Sakura was the top kunoichi in the class. While maybe not excelling physically, she has the sharpest tactical mind, rivalling Shikamaru’s. 

“The Hokage said to talk to you, to see if you have any suggestions for a team.” 

“Well, I’d recommend myself but,” Sakura lifts her injured shoulder, raising her bandaged arm. “Obviously, you can see why I can’t. How long do you have?” 

Shikamaru frowns. “I have thirty minutes to find as many capable genin as I can.” 

“Alright,” Sakura nods. “I’ll round up anyone I can get, where should I send them?” 

“North Gate, don’t be late.” 

“I won’t!” And Sakura turns on her heel, sprinting as fast as she can into the village. 

On a summer day like this, the streets are bustling. Civilians are out shopping and socializing, laughing loudly over cups of floral teas that fill the air with their scents. Sakura’s feet lead her automatically, retracing a path that she walked constantly years ago, and she stops in front of Yamanaka Flowers, glances up at the open sign, and opens the door.  
Ino glances up as the door jingles, a sweet smile on her face, but it falls as she recognizes Sakura, and it morphs into a haughty smirk. “Well, well, well, isn’t it Billboard Brow. What brings you here today?” 

Sakura bristles. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be! Shikamaru needs your help chasing down sound ninja!” 

Ino leans up over the counter, chin balanced in the palm of her hands. “I said I would help my parents out with the shop today, why would I want to go out and chase some Sound ninja?” 

“They kidnapped Sasuke.” 

“They kidnapped my man?” How dare they!” Ino yells, furiously untying the strings of her apron. 

Sakura sneers, “He’s not your man, Ino!” 

“What is he, yours?” 

“He will be!” 

Ino tosses her lavender apron on the counter. “Mom! I’m going out on a mission.” There’s a distant response, it sounds resigned and exasperated, as if Ino always finds an excuse to not be at work. “Where do I need to go?” 

“Meet Shikamaru at the North Gate, they’re leaving at noon!” 

Ino and Sakura burst out the front doors of the shop, squeezing past each other through the door like they had in their academy days. “Catch you later, Sakura!” Ino cries, sticking out her tongue, and she heads off towards the gates. 

The sun is nearing its peak point in the sky, and Sakura has one more place to go. Leaving the hustle and bustle of the commercial district, Sakura heads into the quieter, more serene Clan District, where Konoha’s most elite and wealthiest ninja families reside in high walled homes and delicate gardens. 

Sakura comes to a halt before the high cream colored walls of the Hyuuga compound, etched with patterns of birds in flight, delicate flowers, ornate depictions of their clan’s prestige and history. Raising her hand, she raps once on the heavy, dark oak doors. 

A Hyuuga shinobi appears over the peak of the wall immediately, looking her over with a blank, disproving glance. “State your purpose.” 

“Is Hinata here?” 

“Lady Hinata is home today, what is your intention for her?” 

Sakura stares back up, and steels herself. “I’m a messenger from Shikamaru Nara. He’s requested Hinata and her team on an emergency mission to recover Sasuke Uchiha.” 

She’s lying through her teeth, but it seems to work on the Hyuuga, who’s lavender eyes widen at the news. Knowledge of Sasuke’s disappearance hasn’t spread past those who immediately know, and he glances Sakura over, narrows his eyes, and disappears behind the wall. 

And so Sakura waits, glancing up occasionally at the sun, which approaches closer and closer to the peak of the sky. 

Finally, the doors creak open, and Hinata peeks out, pushed forward by the Hyuuga guard who stands behind her. 

“A-ah, Sakura. Shikamaru requested m-me for a mission?” She seems shocked by the fact, nervously wringing her hands together, but she’s still ready for battle; her kunai pouch is full.

Sakura steps forward, holding Hinata’s hands in her free one. The Hyuuga guard tenses, and the pink genin remembers that Hinata, for all intents and purposes, is a princess among her clan. “Sasuke been kidnapped. We need everyone we can get, you’ll help us, right?” 

Hinata fidgets, and then nods. “I’ll h-help. What happened to your arm, Sakura-san?” 

“The people who took Sasuke did it, the jerks,” Sakura answers. “Now, let’s go! We have to meet Shikamaru by noon!” 

The Hyuuga heiress turns towards the guard, does a deep bow at the waist, and straightens. “P-please tell my father where I am going, t-thank you.” 

As soon as the guard disappears behind the doors, Sakura breaks out in a run, the sun is at its equinox in the sky, beating down its heavy heat. They’re out of time. The Clan district is closest to the main gates, however. A small blessing. 

Sakura skids into the main road, stopping as she sees Shikamaru paused by the marble staircase near the Konoha General hospital. Kiba and Chouji are at his side, Akamaru in Kiba’s arms. Ino looks to be in the middle of a lecture, waving around an empty bag of chips. 

“Hey!” Sakura yells, waving. “I’m here, I’ve brought Hinata!” 

Shikamaru spares her a withering look. “You asked Ino to come?” 

“Watch your mouth!” Ino shouts, dumping chip crumbs in his hair. “I’m a valuable asset! No one stands in-between me and Sasuke!”  
Chouji tilts his head. “Well, Sakura does!” 

“That’s true,” Kiba drawls. 

“That’s beside the point!” 

There’s a pause, and then an incredulous, “Lady Hinata?” 

Sakura realizes that they weren’t just standing around a staircase for no reason. Team Gai is halfway up the steps, Lee on crutches, Tenten by his side, and Neji Hyuuga glancing down at his cousin in disbelief. “Why are you here?” 

Hinata seems to wilt immediately, and Tenten elbows her teammate hard in the ribs, but Kiba strolls up, throws an arm over Hinata’s shoulders. “What’s the matter? Hinata’s one of the coolest, most talented girls I know! She can handle this!” Akamaru yips in agreement, nuzzling up to Hinata’s face. 

“I’ll take all I can get,” Shikamaru shrugs. “Neji, Tenten, are you coming?” 

Neji nods, leaping down the stairs. Tenten spares a glance to Lee, who leans melancholy against his crutches. “Go ahead Tenten, I’ll be fine!” 

The brunnete follows Neji. “Keep your chin up, Lee, you’ll be back to normal in no time Lee!” 

“Alright,” Shikamaru drawls. “We need to leave now if we want any chance of catching up to them.” He gestures the other ninja towards him, and they all make way towards the tall gates to Konoha. 

Sakura calls out as they go, voice cracking. “Hey, bring Sasuke home safe, okay?” 

“No promises,” Shikamaru says, mouth quirking. “But we’ll sure do our best.” 

Nodding, Sakura manages a watery smile, and settles back against the railing of the stairs, Lee at her side. They watch the others go racing out of the gates, falling Shikamaru’s lead. Sakura glances down at her sling, then over to Lee’s crutches. The green ninja is uncharacteristically quiet, staring wistfully after his teammates. 

“Hey Lee,” Sakura says, smiling softly. “Let’s get stronger together, yeah? I never want to be left behind ever again.” 

Lee’s grin is almost as bright as the sun, and Sakura feels the first vestiges of hope bloom in her chest. 

Sasuke is going to come home. 

.  
.  
.

“Kiba,” Shikamaru shouts. “I need you up front, try and see if you can smell any trace of them!” The Inuzuka and his dog call in acknowledgement, and leap ahead of the group. “Hinata, fall in behind him, you’ll be monitoring the front, look for traps and any chakra signals.” The heiress nods, and follows her wild teammate. 

“Neji, I need you in the back. Keep an eye out for anyone coming up from behind us. Tenten, you know him best, so fall back with him.” The two member of Team Gai nod, and fall back. “Chouji, Ino, you’re with me.” 

And so they fall into formation, Team 8 in the lead, Team Gai in the back, and Ino-Shika-Cho making up the heart. “What do you think we’re up against?” Ino asks, calling over the wind. 

“No idea,” Shikamaru admits. “Whoever they are, they were strong enough to overpower Sasuke, and he was the top of our year.” 

Chouji laughs. “But he wasn’t the one promoted, was he?” Even Ino, despite her Sasuke obsession, puffs with pride. Her teammate was promoted first of their entire year, and with her, a little bit of friendly competition is everything. 

Up ahead, Kiba slams to a halt, and Hinata delicately twirls to side step him. The pronounced veins around her temples flare, her eyes narrowing, obviously focusing on something the rest of them can’t see. 

“What is it?” Ino asks, landing next to them. 

Kiba scrunches his nose. “The enemy scent is all over this place.” 

“It’s a p-perimeter barrier,” Hinata answers, pointing up at the massive paper seal plastered on the trunk of a tree.

“A what?” 

Neji lands on the branch. “In essence, it’s an elaborate trap jutsu. Once breached, it has a timer that goes off after you reach the middle of the area. Deadly.” 

“What are we gonna do about it?” Chouji gulps, glancing at Shikamaru. 

“It’ll take too long to deactivate, we’ll have to go around it,” he frowns. “Any sign of them Hinata?” 

The girl flares the chakra in her eyes, gazing off into the distance. “A-ah, yes! They’ve stopped to rest up ahead!” 

“Alright!” Kiba crows. “Let’s go get ‘em, I’ve wanted to try out a new jutsu for a while now!”

Ino strikes a pose, hip cocked and a fire burning in her eyes. “Let’s get Sasuke back!” 

“Hold on,” Shikamaru sighs. “We’ll need a plan before we just leap in.” He gathers the others around him, eyes furrowed in concentration. “I’m splitting us up into three groups, team with teams, so we’re paired with people we work best with. Neji and Tenten, take the forward, Kiba and Hinata, the right, the rest of us will take the left.”

“Understood,” they chorus. 

Creeping forward, the Sound ninja come into view. There’s four of them, resting up against trees, and one is perched upon a massive white coffin. Ino blinks, searching the area. “Where’s Sasuke?”

“They kidnapped him,” Shikamaru whispers back. “I’m guessing he’s in that container?”

“Is he dead?” Ino hisses in alarm. 

“Unlikely. Wouldn’t be worth the trouble to kill him.” 

“Alright well—“ Ino stops mid-speech as the white haired sound nin suddenly stands and spin, launching a kunai with a trio of delicate exploding tags their way. The member of Ino-Shika-Cho go sailing out of the bushes, attempting to avoid the blast, and land in the rough dirt at the feet of the Sound ninja.

“Well, well, what could this be?” The white haired one sings. “I thought I was flushing out a snake, not some rats like you.” 

“Rats?” Ino cries indignantly. “Why I oughta—“ 

Shikamaru claps a hand over her mouth, smiling nervously. “Wait, ignore her! We’re here to negotiate!”

“Negotiate, my ass!” The red-haired girl crows. 

The tall, lanky ninja with the extra set of arms, laughs. “How cruel to forget about your friends!” He moves his six arms in unison, tugging out Hinata, Kiba, Neji and Tenten from the trees by a sickly string of spider silk. As Kiba flies though the air, he spins, throwing down a pair of burning purple smoke bombs. 

“Nice try!” The other says, tugging his string. “I’ve still got you caught in my web!” 

Kiba growls as the smoke clears, the other ninja unfazed, but as he tries to move forward, Kiba breaks out in a wide smirk. An inky black shadow spills across the ground, anchoring itself to the four Sound ninja. 

“You’re not the only one who can spring a trap,” Shikamaru smirks. “Thanks for making me look good in front of the team, though.”

“Huh, really now,” echoes the white haired one. A trio of shuriken fly out of nowhere, slicing up Shikamaru’s arms. Wincing in pain, his hold fades, and the shadow possession shatters like glass. 

The hulking orange Sound ninja bends down, and mutters, “Earth Dome Prison!” The Konoha nin barely have time to cry out as the ground shatters and remakes itself around them, imprisoning them in a dark, rocky dome.

It’s silent, Shikamaru staring blankly ahead. 

“’Thanks for making me look good in front of the team,’ huh?” Ino says flatly. Tenten snorts. 

“Well, isn’t this just a normal rock wall?” Chouji asks. 

“Yeah! We can break through this in no time,” Kiba grins, but Hinata gasps softly, her Byakugan deactivating. 

“W-wait,” she stutters. “I-it’s draining our chakra.” 

Neji activates his own eyes, and grimly confirms, watching everyone’s chakra stream off them in waves. “She’s right. We need to be careful, and do something now before it’s too late.”

Kiba drops into a crouch, Akamaru at his side. “Then, let’s go Akamaru! Fang over Fang!” The two dog ninja leap together, drilling into the rock face, dust and little rock chunks full the air, and Ino coughs, trying to avoid breathing it in. 

When Kiba finally lands, there’s a dent from the attack, but it slowly melts back closed. “What? What was that?” 

Neji glances around, Hinata mirroring him. “The Sound ninja is repairing everything with chakra. There’s a fine layer of it all over the surface of the dome.” 

“Crap,” Shikamaru sighs. “Alright, give me a second.” The Nara walks up, and leans up against the wall. “Hey, do you want to let us out? We won’t pursue you, and we’ll let you keep Sasuke.” 

There’s a muffled laugh on the other side of the wall. “Ah, my favorite part is when they start pleading for their lives, but no deal. I have never released a captive, and I never will.” 

“How about you just let me go? You can keep the others.” 

Kiba sputters. “What is he doing?”

“All this fighting,” Shikamaru continues. “It’s such a waste of energy.” 

The Sound ninja huffs. “If this is what it means to be a Leaf shinobi, you deserve to die.” 

He doesn’t speak again, leaving the Konoha nin to drain of chakra. Ino catches Shikamaru by the shoulder. “What was that?” She whispers, voice hissing through the echoing space of the rock dome. “Were you serious?” 

“Yeah,” Kiba snarls. “Did you try to betray us? Catch me outside Shikamaru, I’ll kick your ass.” 

There’s a loud crunch. Then, another. Everyone, apart from Shikamaru, turns to see Chouji eating a bag of potato chips. 

“Chouji!” Ino says, exasperated. “This is serious, why are you just eating?” 

“C’mon, don’t you know Shikamaru better than this?” Chouji blurts out, and his blonde teammate steps back, eyes wide. 

“Hey,” Shikamaru says. “Try and keep your voice down. Kiba, I need you to try and dent the wall behind Chouji there. 

Kiba blinks, and then nods, any accusations of treachery immediately forgotten. “I don’t know what’s going on,” Kiba shrugs. “But I’m always up for getting wild!” 

Hinata reaches out and rotates Kiba by this shoulder, pointing him a new direction. “R-right there, Kiba. It’s the w-weak spot.”

He nods, Akamaru crouching at his side, and then launches forward, drilling into the spot Hinata pointed out. When he returns, Shikamaru glances over the dent in the wall and smirks. “Alright, Chouji, are you ready, buddy?” 

“I was born ready!” 

Chouji flares his chakra, blowing up into a massive human boulder, and rolls forward, shaking the entire walls of the rock dome. His chakra streams, bright and beautiful in a powerful jet from the holes in his shirt, and finally, with a might boom, Chouji blows a hole in the side of the rock dome, letting sunlight stream in.  
As the entire dome crumbles, dust streaming into the air, Jirobo pants, almost dumbfounded. “You broke my barrier jutsu.” 

“He’s alone?” Shikamaru asks.

Neji activates his Byakugan. “The others have gone ahead.”

The Sound ninja slams his palms against the soil. “Earth Dome Barrier!” 

“No you don’t!” Chouji yells, activating his Expansion jutsu. His increased size causes the forming rock wall to crumble, and the Konoha nin use the cover to disappear into the underbrush. 

“I hate to admit it,” Shikamaru says. The others have gathered around him, forming a circular huddle, as the Sound ninja searches for them. “But we need to split up.”

Ino leans forward. “Is that safe?” 

“He’s right,” Neji adds. “Even with seven of us, our depleted chakra levels would make a fight difficult.” 

“And with every second, Sasuke gets closer and closer to the border,” Tenten continues. 

“Alright Neji, I’m putting you in charge of a sub-team that will pursue—“ 

Shikamaru stops, interrupted by the loud, rumbling, quake of the earth, that rips trees and bushes out of the ground, revealing their location. Jirobo is nowhere to be found. 

Kiba sniffs the air. “Crap, he’s behind us!” 

They turn, Jirobo pushes chakra into the ground, and then hoists up a massive chunk of the earth, trees and all, over his head. 

“What kind of guy is this!” Ino shrieks.

He throws the disk of rock, the Konoha team scatters. It goes crashing through the forest, destroying anything in its way before rolling to a stop. There’s another rumbling sound, but it comes from below, and Jirobo appears from the earth, lifting Shikamaru up by his ankles. 

“I assume you’re the leader. I feel bad for the rest of you, having to follow the orders of an idiot like this guy,” he smirks. “I’ll do you a favor and get rid of him!” 

“Put him down!” Ino yells. Jirobo looks her over with a disgusted look. 

“Girls like you should be seen and not heard.” 

“What?” Ino seethes. “How dare you, you jerk!” 

Chouji clenches his jaw. “I’ll handle this guy!”

“What?” Ino whirls around, ponytail swinging. “This isn’t the kind of guy you fight alone!”

“Ino, I said he’s mine.” He buries his hand in his pocket, taking out a delicately tied cloth bag. “Shikamaru,” Chouji continues, voice softening. “Take these food pills for the rest of the team.

“Chouji…are you--?” 

“I’ve got my secret weapon,” Chouji smiles, pressing the bag into Shikamaru’s hands. “The rest of you, go ahead.” 

Shikamaru nods, resigned, and Ino frowns in concern. “You better not keep us waiting Chouji!” she threatens. “I’ll be super upset if you don’t catch up with us!” 

The Sound ninja sprints forward, and Chouji swallows the green pill. As Jirobo slams into him, Chouji stops the other in his tracks. “Shikamaru! Take the others and go!”

Shikamaru nods, resigned, and Ino frowns in concern. “You better not keep us waiting Chouji!” she threatens. “I’ll be super upset if you don’t catch up with us!”

They launch into the trees, sprinting off towards the border; Ino and Shikamaru glance back at their wayward teammate as he slowly disappears in the distance. 

“I’m going to destroy you, and then go after them,” Jirobo leers. 

“It won’t be easy.” 

Chouji pushes, straining, and then rockets forwards, sending Jirobo backwards. Grabbing him by his hideous purple bow, Chouji hoists the Sound nin up, and tosses him across the clearing. The side effects of the pill hit almost immediately, a sharp stab of fire that originates in Chouji’s stomach.

Biting through the pain, Chouji tugs streams of kunai, all threaded together on ninja wire, and wraps them around his body. Jirobo is still half dazed from his fall, kneeling on the ground. With a grunt, Chouji slams his hands together, transforming himself into a massive human boulder, strung with kunai. Chouji rolls forward, but Jirobo manages to leap out of the way. A massive tree breaks at the base as Chouji rolls into it, but he manages to spin around, orientating himself back towards Jirobo. 

The earth fractures. A large block of stone raises up to protect Jirobo, and Chouji slams into it. It holds for a few seconds, but fractures under the force, exploding outwards. Jirobo raises his arms to stop Chouji, wincing as kunai dig into his flesh.

Curse marks dance across Jirobo’s skin, little arrowhead marks that mar his face. “Don’t get overconfident.” He slams a palm against Chouji’s stomach, popping him like a balloon. Chouji rockets through the air, tossing off the kunai chains, and slams into a tree.

“I’m surprised you haven’t realized,” Jirobo taunts. “In every team, there’s always the one loser like you that gets left behind to die.”

“You talk a lot of smack,” Chouji wheezes. “For someone who got left behind by their own team!” 

Jirobo’s face screws in rage, and Chouji takes the yellow pill. Instantly, chakra flares around him, an aura of grim, bright, determination. Shikamaru trusted him to do this. As the Sound ninja charges, Chouji expands his right arm, blowing it to a grotesquely huge proportion. He slams Jirobo away like he was a fly. 

Chouji forms the seals for the Super Expansion Jutsu, expanding into a gigantic version of himself, and moves to crush his opponent, but stops in his tracks. Jirobo, somehow, is holding him up, and hits him with a characteristic palm strike that reverses Chouji back to normal. 

Chouji hits the ground, and finally gets a good look at his opponent. Jirobo has changed. His skin is an angry red, parts of it are raised, misshapen bumps that pepper his shoulders and forehead. His hair has grown into a vibrant orange mane of hair, and the ninja exudes a newfound power, and slams an elbow, a knee, a palm, into Chouji over and over again. 

Jirobo places a hand on Chouji’s neck, pressing him down with enough force the earth fractures around him. Blue chakra steams in the air as Jirobo steals it. It sputters, and fizzles out. “There’s practically nothing left,” he sneers. “You’re empty.” He pulls Chouji up, and throws him. The Akimichi cries out, his headband flying out from the force, and an opened chip bag flies out of his pockets. 

The Sound ninja leans down, peering into the bag. “Of course, there’s only one left.” He almost shrugs, shoulders monstrously twitching, and eats the last chip.

“After I kill you,” Jirobo says idly. “I’ll hunt down those flaky teammates of yours that left you behind like a sacrificial lamb.” The Sound ninja flexes his fist, it’s over. Chouji is going to die. 

But Chouji still has the red pill. 

As Jirobo prepare to strike, Chouji pops open the little pill box, rolls the red pill into his hand, and into his mouth. When Jirobo strikes the ground, nothing is there. Reeling, the Sound shinobi swings around, looking for the missing Akimichi. 

Chakra butterflies swirl past in the air, flying past Jirobo and alighting on Chouji who stands behind him. As each one lands, they morph together, forming two massive chakra wings on Chouji’s back. 

“Whatever this is,” Jirobo says. “It won’t help you now.” He throws a fist forward. Chouji catches in midair, stopping the swing. He slams an elbow into Jirobo, sending him flying backwards, turning the tables. Chouji pivots on his foot.

“That, was for eating my last chip, and this,” he continues, punching the other in the face. “Is for calling me useless, but you know what I can’t forgive? You insulted my best friend, and you’ll pay for that!” 

Chouji focuses all his chakra to his left hand, which burns in a shroud of chakra, and slams it right into the center of Jirobo’s chest. 

“You don’t get to—insult my team,” Chouji pants. “Even if it’s the last thing you do.” 

Jirobo’s curse mark recedes, along with his hairline. Chouji winces as his body racks with pain,  
and chokes as his vision is dotted with black spots. With a hard exhale, Chouji topples backwards. The pill’s poison wracks his body, sending sharp pains down to his bones. 

Somehow, Chouji stumbles up, half walking, half limping away from the crater where Jirobo lies. Each step aches, every breath he takes burns, and his vision fades, blurring. The last chakra butterfly brushes against his face, and Chouji follows it, bumping past tree and underbrush. 

He stops in front a tree, with all the bark stripped off, words carved in its surface, and he cries.  
“We’re waiting for you!” 

“Good job Chouji, find us soon!”

Staggering, he leans up against the tree, sinking down to the ground. 

“You better not keep us waiting Chouji!”

“Sorry Ino,” Chouji mumbles. “Maybe some other time.” 

The sun shines around him, a bright blue butterfly settles on Chouji’s shoulder, and his world goes dark. 

.  
.  
.

“Do you think Chouji will be okay?” 

Ino finally voices her concerns for her teammate when they get a mile away, flying through the trees. Shikamaru nods, subdued. “I believe in Chouji, he’s stronger than you think. Neji, Hinata, have you seen anything?” 

“It’s strange,” Neji answers. “There’s hasn’t been a single trap. What do you think Shikamaru?”

The Nara sighs. “They’re under the impression that their teammate was going to win. Good. We can use this to our advantage. Let’s set a trap of our own.” Shikamaru stops and henges into the ginger Sound nin to the best of his memory. “How is it?” 

“You look hideous,” Ino says. “It’s perfect.” 

“Alright, I’ll head forward, follow at a safe distance.” Shikamaru’s words look strange coming out of Jirobo’s visage, even the pitch of the voice is frighteningly accurate. 

Shikamaru leaps ahead, launching himself from branch to branch, and listens for the signs of his teammates trailing behind. Without any traps, it’s quick to catch up to the team of Sound shinobi. 

“Aw, Jirobo, you finally grace us with your presence,” simpers the white haired one. 

“Sorry,” Shikamaru grunts. “It took longer than I thought to eat those loser’s chakra.” 

The red-haired girl sneers. “Listen, fatass, don’t slow us down just so you can eat more. You see that?” She points to the elaborate white coffin that contains Sasuke. “You’re supposed to be carrying it, so do your job, you lazy pig.” 

“Fine.”

Shikamaru knows he’s made a mistake the instant the other three ninja glance at him in suspicion, sharing a silent look together. “Well, aren’t you nice today, Jirobo.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“What I mean,” bites the six armed one. “Is that you aren’t the real Jirobo.” He tosses the white coffin through the air into the red-haired girl’s arms. “Sakon, Tayuya, go ahead!” 

“Don’t fuck up like Jirobo did, Kidomaru!” Tayuya shouts in farewell.

Shikamaru leaps forward, drawing a kunai, but Kidomaru stops him with a forearm block. “Do you want to know what you did wrong? Jirobo’s always criticizing Tayuya for her language.”

Dropped the henge, Shikamaru shrugs. “Well, that would have been nice to know.”

The Sound ninja’s jaw is moving, chewing something in his mouth. Shikamaru tries to kick up, but the other spits, sending out a web of spider silk, sticky and hard, which pins Shikamaru to a tree.

C’mon Kiba, Shikamaru thinks. Remember the timing.

Slightly off cue, Kiba and Akamaru spin out from below, blurry drills that mirror each other. The Sound shinobi laughs, and tugs on spider strings that send him rocketing upwards, like a gymnast on a trapeze bar. 

The spider silk gets everywhere, strung up in the leaves, creeping over the tree branch where Kiba stands. It sticks like glue, trapping Kiba to the tree. One by one, he catches the remaining Konoha nin in his trap, hanging over them like a spider to its prey.

“Kunai can’t cut it!” Tenten shouts, furiously attempting to cut through the silk.

Hinata blinks, her Byakugan flickering off. “I-t’s infused with chakra!”

Neji smirks. He focuses his chakra to his hand, and focuses it onto the string that imprisons him. The Gentle Fist breaks the chakra framework that supports the spider string, and it falls away limply like gossamer. Hinata follow his lead, breaking free, and lands softly. 

“Help the others Lady Hinata! I will handle this opponent.” 

Hinata zips across the trees, cutting through the spider silk. “This guy looks much stronger than the last one.” Shikamaru shakes off the excess remains of the web. “Are you sure you want to fight him alone?” 

“He won’t be alone.” Tenten lands on the branch next to Neji, hand falling to a scroll strapped to her side. “Two is always better than one. I’m staying behind to help.” 

Neji nods at his teammate. “Go Shikamaru, the two of us will surely handle this.”

The remaining Konoha nin take to the trees. “Do you think I’ll just let them go?” Kidomaru yells. His cheeks are inflated with a mass of chakra web that he launches in pursuit. Tenten ducks, web sailing over her head, and Neji breaks the web with a well-aimed chakra strike that leaves the others continue safely. 

Neji leaps forward, surprising his opponent, and takes advantage by immediately launching into an eight trigrams attack. Tenten watches as he becomes a blur of motion, steadily pushing the Sound ninja back and forcibly through a tree. 

When the smoke clears, the Sound ninja is still standing, his skin a vibrant gold that cracks and flakes off his skin. “Nice try,” he snickers. “But I know about the Gentle Fist, it’s very famous, you know.” 

And then he’s disappeared into the wind. Tenten descends from the trees and lands at Neji’s side. Her teammate inclines his head slightly to the left, alerting her to where the enemy his hiding. Ah, the wonders of the Byakugan. 

A kunai slices the ground between them, a dud explosion tag hastily taped on. “Tenten,” Neji warns. “Up!” 

A barrage of kunai, made of the same metal gold substance as Kidomaru’s armor rain down towards them. While Neji spins into a rotation, Tenten unseals her own kunai, firing a volley upward to deflect. Her blades clatter against the others, and they fall uselessly to the forest ground. 

Neji throws a kunai off towards a tree, it buries itself three inches into the bark with a dull thud, followed by the rustle of someone moving. “I know you’re out there.” He calls, taunting. Long distance combat may not be Neji’s area of expertise, but it is Tenten’s, as long as she can see the target. 

Kidomaru falls into view, dangling from a branch by a series of strings. Curse marks swirl across his skin like vines, small calligraphy ink swirls. “I will say,” he drawls. “I thought this would have ended quicker. It’s time to take things seriously.” He slams his hands together and bites his thumb, the telltale sign of a summoning jutsu. The forest fills with a cloud of milky white smoke, and when it clears, it reveals a massive black spider, streaked with a poisonous orange pattern. 

A viscous white fluid leaks from it, an egg sack. When Kidomaru cuts through it, thousands upon thousands of tiny infant spiders rain from above. Neji blanches, but Tenten twitches her fingers, and her fallen kunai hum to life. Guided by her chakra strings, the spiders are no match as she slices through them with ease.

Kidomaru doesn’t even remember to throw his blade, half in shock at the girl’s technique. A taijutsu match with the boy means almost certain defeat, but the girl matches his distanced attacks turn for turn. Another wave of spiders crawls out from their mother, raining from the treetops. There’s such a sheer amount that Tenten’s blades aren’t enough, and Neji thins out the ones near him via palm strikes.

A series of golden kunai shoot from the trees, Tenten blocks each strike. Neji ducks, each one shooting past him—

There’s a sharp stabbing feeling of pain. 

Neji missed one. 

Tenten glances back in morbid surprise as Neji clamps a hand over the bleeding gash on his shoulder. A silent conversation passes through their eyes, and Tenten nods as grim realization settles on her features.

The blind spot.

Something needs to be done before the enemy figures it out. 

“Tenten,” Neji says, a wince of pain tinging his voice. “Can you take care of the spider?”

The kunoichi takes out two twin seals, dyed red with gold detailing that swirls in elegant patterns over the paper. “It would be my pleasure.” She says. “I’ve never liked spiders anyway.” Tenten leaps up, her two scrolls unfurling in a swirl beside her. Two rising dragons with Tenten at the center. She unseals her weapons, anything from senbon to kunai to tantōs and cleavers, and throws them at the massive body of the spider, who is too busy producing offspring to be agile. 

Tenten never misses her mark, this is one undisputable fact of Team Gai, and the spider disappears in a puff of smoke, taking her children with her. Furiously, Kidomaru’s curse marks curl further across his skin. His skin takes the appearance of a carapace, rough and red. His hair grows wild, bleached blond. Hiding in the trees, he opens his mouth, more of a maw at this point, and a steady stream of gold material excretes from his mouth, dripping across his skin. It forms a bow and arrow, massive metal things, that he aims towards an oblivious Tenten, and fires.

Neji’s teammate is a fearsome thing, clever, sharp eyes, with thousands of weapons all at her disposal, but she does not have all seeing eyes.

The arrow dances into Neji’s field of vision, on a path towards Tenten’s turned back. “Tenten!” Neji yells, running towards her. “Watch out!” 

She turns, eyes wide as the arrow races towards her, and then Neji slams into her side. The arrow hits not just one target, but two. 

It punctures both of their shoulders, threading them together, Neji in front and Tenten behind him. Blood cakes the white thread, staining it pink. The arrow pins both of them to a tree, trapped like prey. “Thank you, Neji.” Tenten smiles through the pain. 

“Truly, it was my pleasure,” Neji responds. His eyes are glued to the string, watching the chakra trail inside it. He raises his free arm, buzzing with blue chakra, and touches the string, channeling his chakra upward. 

The shoots up the string like fire, and soon enough Kidomaru winces, like liquid flame has entered his body. He spits out the wire connected to the arrow, and falls backwards off the tree branch, body paralyzed.

Tenten rips the arrow out of her shoulder, and Neji slides it out of him afterwards. The Sound ninja is plummeting towards the forest floor, but Tenten would never let someone like him die so easily. She unseals six blades from her scroll, and throws them so Kidomaru is pinned up against the tree. 

Neji leaps forward, striking the chakra points only he can see. Kidomaru reverts back to his normal appearance, coughing up blood as his organs fail him. The Sound ninja opens him mouth to say something, a taunt, a plead for his life, but Neji doesn’t care enough to hear. The Hyuuga places one well aimed strike at his heart, and the life fades from Kidomaru’s eyes. 

“How is your shoulder Tenten?” 

She rolls her shoulder, that section of her shirt is stained red. “I could ask the same about you, but I’m good to keep going. Shall we catch up with the others?” 

A flock of birds take off from the trees, dancing across the sun. Neji manages a rare smile. 

“Let’s.” 

.  
.  
.

The sun is setting when Shikamaru stops the group. “We’ll need to make camp,” he drawls, glancing up at the first hint of stars in the sky. 

“What?” Kiba says. “Won’t an attack at night be the smart choice?” 

“Nope.” Shikamaru pops the ‘p’ sound. “It’ll be too hard to see in the dark, and recovering Sasuke will require exact timing and observation. I mean, yes, we have Hinata’s Byakugan, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she’s had it on all day, she needs time to recuperate her chakra before even considering a plan.”  
Hinata flushes an embarrassed red. Shikamaru continues. “Plus, it’s night time, my jutsu will be useless, and since I won’t be able to do anything, most of Ino’s jutsu will be useless as well.” 

Ino pouts. “Not my fault.” 

“But aren’t you forgetting about me and Akamaru’s killer sense of smell?” 

“Yes, while you’ll be able to see what you’re doing,” Shikamaru drawls. “What’s the point of attacking when three of your teammates won’t be able to help. We’re stopping for the night.”

Kiba frowns, obviously displeased, but listens anyway. They stop to make camp, not risking a fire, sleeping on makeshift grass pillows and beds. Shikamaru takes first watch, watching the rest of his teammates settle. Kiba snores softly, and Akamaru whines in his sleep, dreaming of whatever dogs dream of. 

Ino slides up to Shikamaru, her blonde hair unbound and loose around her shoulders. The shorter look is flattering on her, she looks more and more like a real kunoichi every day. “I’m sorry,” she begins, clearly bothered. “That I doubted you earlier.” 

Shikamaru sighs. “You didn’t really think I was going to betray you guys, right?” 

“No,” Ino says, too quickly. “I mean, yes, for a second. Chouji was right, I really should have known better to doubt you like that.”

“It’s fine, I really don’t care.” 

Ino’s face scrunches up in disbelief. “You don’t care? I came to apologize and you don’t even care--?” 

Shikamaru laughs. “Ino, it’s fine, seriously.”

She tugs at his ponytail, hard enough to feel, but soft enough to not hurt. “I’m going to bed, you lazy jerk.” There’s no harm in her words, but things already feel back to normal between them. Ino stands, padding over to where she set up her backpack. Shikamaru settles back up against the tree, gazing off into the night. 

“Shikamaru,” Ino calls. “You’re a great leader, I’m proud of you. I think Asuma-sensei will be too, when he finds out.” 

He smiles, and Ino flashes a bright grin, before settling down for the night. 

In the morning, Hinata shakes all of them awake, quietly wishing them a good morning. She keeps glancing behind them, as if waiting for her cousin to reappear. They all set off once more, chasing after the remaining two Sound shinobi.  
They catch up to the two within the hour, Hinata letting out a quiet sound as they enter the range of her Byakugan. They turn as the Konoha nin land behind them, the coffin is shaking. 

“Hi,” Ino coos. “Not expecting us were you?” 

The red-haired girl sneers. “Where the hell are Jirobo and Kidomaru when we need them?” 

“We don’t need them Tayuya,” answers the other. “I can take them by myself!” 

He leaps forward, green painted lips curled up in a sneer. Hinata meets him first, a timid taijutsu force what the other stops immediately. Kiba leaps forward, Akamaru at his side, forming a Fang over Fang that Sakon jumps over, but they barrel forwards towards Tayuya. 

“Like that’ll work!” She crows. She tries to dodge, but she can’t move. 

Shikamaru steps out from the leaves. “Gotcha,” he smirks. His shadow is linked to hers, a blotchy ink patch on the wood. Kiba grabs the coffin, springing away from her. 

“Tayuya! What are you doing?” 

“I can’t move you ass!” The two ninja collide together, limbs tangled, watching as the Konoha ninja run off with their prize. 

Sakon’s curse marks dot his skin. “Do they think it’s that easy?” He roars, and they run in pursuit.

“Crap, they’re fast.” Kiba curses. Akamaru barks from below, an exploding tag in his mouth. “Catch up when you finish setting those up, Akamaru.” 

Sakon follows, and screeches as part of the tree explodes in his face. 

“Good boy!” Kiba crows, glancing back at the smoke.

The Sound ninja sails out of it, trapped in a rage. Akamaru glances up, and tries to run away, but is trapped by the Sound ninja’s wire. “That’s the last time you bark, you animal.” The exploding tag starts to burn, smoking and sparking. 

“Akamaru!” Hinata cries. The dog is as much of her team as Kiba is.

Kiba zips back, racing the timer of the tag, and lands next to his dog right as it explodes. They disappear into a column of smoke, Hinata’s heart leaps into her throat as she searches for any sign of her teammate, or the Sound ninja. 

She gasps. Kiba free falls down the ravine, Akamaru wrapped in his arms, bringing the strange Sound Ninja with him. Hinata glances back her remaining teammates, andlaunches herself after him.

“Hinata!” Ino yells. “Where are you going?” 

The Hyuuga heiress stops sideways on the cliff face, holding herself up by chakra. “G-go ahead! I can’t l-leave Kiba and Akamaru behind!” 

“Why can’t anyone just stick to the plan,” Shikamaru moans.

Ino and Shikamaru flank the coffin as Tayuya flies towards them. 

Below, Hinata races down a cliff side, eyes searching for any sign of Kiba. This deep into the ravine, a river carves through it, shallow but wide. Her Byagukan searches for any signature, and, there, four chakra signatures. When Hinata arrives, Kiba is fallen in the water, Akamaru, a red blur, heading towards him. 

“Hinata?” Kiba says incredulously, blinking water out of his eyes. “Came to help?” 

She nods, eyes watching the distant figure of the Sound ninja. Kiba stands, not minding his drenched jacket. “Well,” he grins. “With you, we’ll beat this guy in no time!”

Akamaru transforms into a clone of Kiba, both of them slipping into their Fang over Fang stance. They jump forward, a spinning cyclone of destruction, but Sakon stops them in the middle of their attack, catching them by their wrists. He has four arms. 

Across the ravine, Hinata gasps, there’s two of them. 

“Aw, this is perfect Sakon,” a mysterious voice laughs. “There’s one for each of us.” With a punch, one of the Kiba’s launches backwards, slamming into a rock. The henge drops, and Akamaru barks in pain. 

“Ah, look, the real one.” And Kiba gets knocked back with a hit. Akamaru runs to defend his partner, and Hinata joins him. Smirking, the Sound ninja knocks Kiba back, sending all three of them backwards.

“The three of you are so pathetic, why—“ A third arm manifests to cover his mouth. 

“Hush now Sakon,” hisses the other head, transforming into a red skinned demon. “No time to talk now.” 

“You’re so impatient brother, what would you prefer today?”

“Let’s rip them to pieces.” 

The other twin transforms to match his brother, red skinned, black eyes, and needle-like fangs. Hinata’s looks them over. “T-their chakra increased, i-it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen!” 

“Anything I try they deflect,” Kiba growls. “What do we do Hinata?” 

“I-I don’t know.” 

Akamaru barks, tail wagging, and a determined glint in his eyes. “What?” Kiba answers incredulously. “You want to try that? 

“Try what?” Hinata whispers. 

“Me and Akamaru are practicing a new jutsu,” Kiba explains, almost sheepishly. “I was waiting to show it to you guys and Kurenai-sensei when we got it down completely, but I guess it’s all we’ve got right now. Can you back us up Hinata? Try and figure out what’s going up with his chakra.” 

Hinata nods, Byakugan probing, and Kiba jumps up. “Wolf Fang over Fang it is!” Akamaru runs forward, dodging past the twins, who are running towards Kiba. They hit him hard in his stomach, and Kiba coughs up blood that speckles all over his coat. The twins laugh, but Kiba grips them tight by their wrists. “Go Akamaru!” 

His white dog leaps into the air and pees, spinning to that it splatters on the Sound ninja. “What the hell?” They cry, and Hinata laughs softly. Kiba smirks, and leaps up into the air, meeting with his dog. They explode into a cloud of white smoke, and a massive white dog roars out of it, it’s two heads snarling. 

It leaps forward, a massive blur of motion, drilling the twin Sound ninja apart in an explosion of blood and body matter. They lay separated, silent, and Kiba watches as their missing limbs regrow out of a black, sheening metal. 

“Thanks,” one sneers, standing. “We were just thinking of separating.”

The wolf snarls, and then starts to spin again, tracking the twins by scent. They stand adjacent to eachother, a small distance between them, and Hinata can see the flare of chakra. 

“Kiba, wait--!” 

A massive metal gate appears in smoke, a monstrous face depicted on the metal doors. Kiba and Akamaru slam into it, leaving a massive dent and warping the metal visage into something more twisted. They fall backwards limply, and the two brothers leap after them. 

The wolf’s eyes snap open, and he pees again. As ridiculous as it is, one of the brothers cries out in pain as it lands in his eyes. Kiba and Akamaru split apart, returning to normal, and Akamaru takes a punch meant for Kiba. The small white dog lands so hard the earth cracks, a whimpering whine escaping from his mouth.

“My eyes!” One brother shrieks. “I think it’s acid!” 

He stumbles off towards the river, and Hinata makes her move. “Y-you’re not going anywhere!” 

“I don’t need to see you to know you won’t be able to do anything,” the blind one sneers. “You’re not even worth my time to fight, out of my way.” He pushes past her, fumbling blind, and Hinata stands, arms limp, the fight draining out of her. 

“Hinata!” Kiba yells. “Don’t listen to him! You’re the most talented person I know! Go prove him wrong, I’ll find the other one!” 

The Hyuuga heiress straightens, determination returning to her eyes, and Kiba’s words echoing through her head. She’s stronger than looks, Kiba and Shino know it, Kurenai-sensei encourages it, even Naruto, wherever he is now, believed in her, and it’s time she started believing in herself. 

“I-I’ll be back, I promise,” Hinata says, and she follows one of the twins down the river. 

Kiba looks around, eyes settling on the limp form of Akamaru. “Crap, where’s the other one.”

“Looking for me?” A voice hisses in his ear, and Kiba’s head snaps to look at the demonic face growing out of his shoulder. Kiba tries to punch him, but the head slides around, an uncomfortable feeling of something swimming through his own flesh. “I’m going to dissolve your body into mine.”

“I see,” Kiba glances at Akamaru, and then at the direction where Hinata chased the other. He snatches a kunai from his thigh, and plunges it into his abdomen. “What happens if I do this?” Kiba laughs, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth. The brother coughs up blood too, and gasps in shock. “Suicide? You’re insane.” 

“It’s murder,” Kiba snarks, arrogantly grinning. “Since I’m bringing you with me.” He tugs the kunai back out, wheezing slightly as it tugs at his skin. “You know, there’s one way to stop the pain.” 

“No, you wouldn’t,” the twin says. Kiba laughs in his face, and then stabs the kunai back into his body. The Sound ninja tumbles out of his body, shrieking, trying to avoid the fatal blow. Kiba, wincing, pulls the kunai out and throws it, along with a pair of purple smoke bombs that explode and fill the air. 

He has to make his escape now, and find Hinata. 

Downriver, Hinata stands behind the other twin, who frantically is trying to rinse out his eyes. “I didn’t think you would try and follow,” he says, rocking back on his heels. His vision is still blurry, Hinata is more of a shape than a person. He lumbers forward, footwork clumsy, and Hinata springs into battle, slamming her palms against him. 

He’s half blind, a weak opponent against a Hyuuga, and she jabs with her fingers, closing off his chakra points, dancing around him elegantly. He spins, trying to catch her, but he’s always too slow, missing her every time. As his chakra flow stutters, the curse marks recede, transforming him back into almost a normal human. His vision gets even worse, back in his normal state, and the acid seems to only burn hotter until one of his eyes goes dark, and then the other. 

Hinata’s first kill goes like this, she seals up a blind man’s chakra, and paralyzes him with a blow to the spine. There’s no blood, no last words, or moments of glory, but she leaves him face down by the river, and if the water rises, and he starts to drown, Hinata will remind herself that she’s a shinobi of the leaf, and that he hurt her friends. 

Kiba spots her from the water, Akamaru wrapped in his arms, his signature jacket missing. “Hinata!” He calls softly, just loud enough to catch her attention. “I knew you could do it!” His grin is shaky, and Hinata notices the blood in the water.

“Kiba, w-what happened?” Hinata says frantically, racing across the water. 

“I’ll explain later, I had to do it to escape.”

Hinata pets the fur of Akamaru. “Will Akamaru be okay?” 

“I…I don’t know.” 

She sinks into the water, releasing the chakra flow on her feet. The river is cold, unusually so in the summer. “L-let’s catch up with the others,” she smiles weakly. Kiba nods, and covers their head with a large driftwood branch. They begin to creep down the river, Hinata supporting Kiba as he begins to stumble and slip. 

They emerge downstream, Hinata pulling Kiba out of the water. The front of his padded vest is ruined with blood, it cakes his fingers, smearing over Akamaru’s fur. “Hinata,” Kiba begins. “I don’t think I can move anymore.”

She nods grimly, and sets him down against a tree. He pants, each breath sounding painful, and Hinata sits next to him. “I-I could try and make a salve, it could help, even j-just a little.”

Kiba sniffs the air harshly. “There’s no time, he found us. I can smell him.”

Hinata moves to stand, but Kiba tugs her back down. “No, you can’t fight him and keep me safe at the same time, you’ll end up hurt. Our best chance is to hide and hope he doesn’t find us.” 

It’s quiet, wind whistling through the trees. Despite the situation, it’s a beautiful sunny day in Fire Country.

“You know, if Shino was here, I feel like we wouldn’t be in this situation.” 

Hinata lets out a tinkling little laugh, head pillowed on Kiba’s shoulder. “I think he would say the same."

They stiffen as the sound of wet footsteps approach. Hinata activates her Byakugan and winces, squeezing Kiba’s hand. A set of black claws curl around the tree, and the remaining twin appears, bloody and enraged. “You killed my brother,” he says, his black eyes boring into Hinata’s white ones. “You’re going to pay for that.” 

He takes a kunai, spinning it through his fingers and lunges. Hinata tries to stand up, block the blow, but it never comes.

A chittering, clacking sound. Kiba blinks up at a wooden puppet. “Well, would you look at that. I guess we’re on the same side this time, huh?” 

Kankuro steps out from the forest, his black desert clothes and purple face paint a sharp contrast to the location. “Hey,” he waves, wriggling his fingers. His puppet mirrors the action. “What’s up.”

The Sound Ninja never stood a chance. 

.  
.  
.

“I guess it’s just us,” drawls Shikamaru to Ino. “Tough luck for you.” The red head sneers, stepping protectively in front of the coffin where Sasuke is imprisoned. 

Ino laughs. “With you and me, we’ll have Sasuke back in no time!” 

Something crashes though the trees. A figure plummets through the branches, landing softly on top of the barrel that contains Sasuke. “Not quite.” The newcomer is regal, a narrow face, high cheekbones, all in white, from his hair to his toes. The exception is the purple bow that marks all the Sound Ninja, and the red. There are two dots on his forehead and red paint smeared carefully beneath his bright green eyes.

“Kimimaro,” the red head says in a mixture of awe, and absolute horror. “What are you doing here?” 

“You were taking too long, Tayuya.”

She hisses lowly between her teeth. “You should be dead.”

“Don’t you wish,” the white haired boy says flatly. “I’ll leave this garbage to you.” With a delicate flip, he takes Sasuke’s prison over his back and jumps off into the trees. 

“He took Sasuke,” Ino cries. “We have to go after him Shikamaru!”

Tayuya pulls out her flute. “You may have gotten through the others, but this ends here!” She bites the tip of her thumb, drawing blood and slams it against the bark of a tree. A massive plume of smoke appears and three ogres appear. They’re monstrous, one bandaged, one with lank long hair, and another with an uneven mouth, as though it had been sewn shut, and ripped open the stiches. 

“That’s,” Shikamaru trails. “Not good.” 

Ino scoffs. “You could say that again.”

The Sound Ninja plays her song, echoing and ominous through the forest. Her ogres bob to the music, swaying like puppets on a string, and just like that, they’re gone. The tree branch snaps in half as a giant club goes swinging between them. Ino and Shikamaru break apart, scattering in opposite directions. The entire tree goes up into smoke, pulverized by the attack, and the other two ogres split, following the Konoha nin. 

It’s an artful game, Shikamaru must admit, it takes talent to control summons by music, even more so to use them to manipulate her opponents into a corner position. Ino’s pinned up against one tree, Shikamaru on another, and the third ogre hangs between them, watching and waiting for a move. 

“Must be a pretty complicated song you have there,” Shikamaru drawls, Ino catches his movement from the corner of her eye, and she nods slightly, inclining her head his way. 

A prideful smile spreads across Tayuya’s face. “Actually, you’re right. You figured it out, huh? That I control them with my flute. You’re smarter than you look, but it won’t do you any good.” 

“You’re right,” Shikamaru stalls. “I was never very musically inclined.” 

“Hm, I guess you’ll never find out how to stop it,” Tayuya comments, raising her flute. Shikamaru’s eyes widen, he still needs more time to finish stretching his shadow. 

Ino saves the day, which, Shikamaru hopes, won’t become a trend. “You’re super pretty,” Ino calls, bouncing on her feet. 

“What?” Tayuya says sharply, lowering her flute in disbelief. 

“Yeah! I mean, look at you! You have such pretty hair, lovely color, it would look really good with white lilies, you know?” Ino rambles. “Anyways, I thought you should know, I bet those boys on your team were all over you!” 

“I hate my teammates.”

The blonde scoffs, flipping her hair. “You know how teenage boys are. Can’t get them to admit anything, like look at Shikamaru here!” 

“Hey!” 

“I couldn’t get him to admit that he thought that Suna ninja was cute,” Ino continues. “But I know you thought—“ 

Tayuya sighs audibly. “Where are we going with this? Can I get back to killing you?” 

“Anyways, as I was saying, I bet one of those boys liked you,” Ino winks, wiggling her eyebrows. “Maybe that one with the six arms, or no, the big one with the orange hair!” 

Tayuya’s face gets very pinched, as if she had eaten something incredibly sour. “Fuck this,” she says flatly. “I never want to think about that again. Ever again.” She lifts her flute, starts playing a melody, but her summons don’t move. 

“Nice job Ino,” Shikamaru says. He rolls his shoulders, the three ogres mimicking his movement grotesquely. He leaps forward, pulling a kunai, and Tayuya’s summons turn against her. She raises her hands into a seal, dispelling all three of them in puffs of smoke. 

“Nice try,” she smirks. “Really, but it’s my turn now, you rat.”

She can’t move.

“Gotcha,” Shikamaru smirks. His shadow stretches out behind him, an inky blot on the ground, curving out of sight before latching on to Tayuya’s. She shakes visibly with effort, struggling to move against Shikamaru’s jutsu. 

A branch sways as two weights land on it. 

“Need some help?” Ino glances up, Tenten and Neji stand balanced up above them. Both their left shoulders are bandaged, shirts stained with dried blood, but they stand tall all the same.

“No, go ahead!” Ino yells in response. “Some creepy jerk showed up and ran off with Sasuke!”

Neji’s face screws into a frown. “How long ago?” 

“Too long,” bites Shikamaru. “Go after them. We’ve got this under control.” 

Tenten springs into action, launching herself off a branch, and zipping off towards the border. Neji moves to follow, but stops. “Where’s Lady Hinata?” 

“Her and Kiba went down a ravine with one of the Sound ninja.”

“You let Lady Hinata fall down a ravine!” Neji calls incredulously. 

“She didn’t fall.” Shikamaru replies. “She ran down after Kiba. Now go!” 

Neji follows Tenten, leaving Ino and Shikamaru alone with Tayuya once more. The red-haired girl in question struggles, her skin turning a dark grey as her curse seal jumps into stage two. Her hair grows, paling in color, and a series of horns sprout from her head, tearing her hat to shreds.

“Ino,” Shikamaru warns. “She’s breaking free.” 

“Don’t worry, I can handle it.”

“What’s a stupid bitch like you going to do?” Tayuya snarls. 

Ino’s eye twitches, violently. Then spasms again. “Girls are supposed to support each other, you jerk!” She shouts. “Don’t ever call me that again! Mind Transfer Jutsu!”

Ino goes limp, body falling like a puppet with cut strings, Shikamaru drops his jutsu and leaps over, keeping Ino from slipping off the tree and plummeting to her death. Tayuya stays still, eyes blank, and then she snaps her own precious flute. She winks, an unsettling sight, and tosses the remains towards the forest floor. 

“There goes her only weapon,” Ino says through Tayuya’s mouth. She runs her hands through the girls’ red hair. “Oh,” she whines. “I miss my long hair.”

“Get back in your body,” Shikamaru calls. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“You better!” 

Shikamaru sighs. “I promise.”

Ino drops the technique, and a sense of clarity returns to Tayuya’s eyes, hardening as she spots the two Konoha ninja. “She broke my flute,” Tayuya says to herself. “She broke my flute! She’s gonna pay for that!”

She leaps forward, and Shikamaru is all that’s between her and Ino, who still lays limply against the tree. The Nara takes out a kunai, raising it to block.

A gust of wind smacks Tayuya right in her chest, sending her reeling backwards through the air like a strange, demonic, little kite. “Who the hell are you!” She screams into the wind. 

Landing on the branch, Temari balances her fan on her hips. “I’m an ally of the Leaf Village, a shinobi of the Sand.” 

“I thought I heard we reconciled with you traitors,” Shikamaru says, no real bite to his words.

Temari glances back at him over her shoulder. “Well, it’s not like we attacked you for fun. Plus, we aren’t as much of a fan of Orochimaru and the Sound as you are. You seem dumber from the last time I saw you.” 

Thankfully, Ino isn’t awake for this, Shikamaru could never live that down. 

The Sand ninja waves her fan, sending a cyclone of wind out towards the forest. It slices through trees, and Tayuya falls. Temari waves her fan again, it’s metal faces clanging against each other, and another sharp gust of wind rocks the forest. 

By the time the wind fades, the forest is decimated, entire treetops missing, revealing the sky. Tayuya is a red splotch, pinned beneath a pair of massive trees. 

Ino wakes up. 

“What? What in the world did I miss? This is ridiculous, how could you—oh, it’s you!” Ino rambles excitedly, glancing up at Temari. “Oh, Shikamaru,” Ino sings. “Look who it is!” 

Shikamaru groans. Blonde girls are way to troublesome. 

.  
.  
.

The closer to the border, the less trees grow, sparsely covering the ground, until they break away into rolling grasslands. It’s almost as if the plants theirselves don’t wish to leave the Land of Fire. 

Tenten and Neji exit the tree line, focusing on the white figure racing across the field. He pays them no attention, eyes glued ahead. It’s not far to the massive valley that marks the border between Fire and Sound. Tenten snatches a kunai from her side, hurling it through the air at their opponent. 

The figure dodges, the blade whistling past his ear, and pauses, setting down the white coffin. He turns idly, white hair swaying in the wind. Tenten and Neji land, a safe distance away from him, and the white-haired boy fixes them with an apathetic glance. He reminds Tenten of Neji, for a moment, or at least the person Neji had been before Naruto literally knocked some sense into him.

“I apologize,” Neji begins. “But we cannot let you continue.”

“I’m afraid that will be impossible. Lord Orochimaru requires Uchiha, and I am willing to die to deliver him to my master.” 

“Willing to die, huh?” Tenten spins a kunai between her fingers. “If you say so.” 

Kimimaro shifts, a slick, cracking noise echoing from his body. A white blade forces its way out of his arm, skin buckling and bruising as the bone impales through it. And then he moves like a flash, each step like a poised dance. Neji meets him halfway, Byakugan blazing, and matches him blow for blow. They move in circles around each other, a dodge, a blocked attack, styles too alike to make any ground against the other.

Eventually, the Sound ninja almost grows irritated, and increases his rhythm. He leaps upward, and when he lands, more boney blades protrude from his joints, and Neji gets pushed on the defense. 

“Neji, get back!” Tenten shouts, taking out one of her sealing scrolls, and her teammate falls backwards into a handspring, eerily reminiscent of Gai, moving safely out of the way. She throws a series of blades, and then leaps in close, raising a tantō into a strike. The metal of the blade shatters like glass, shards fracturing and slicing the skin of Tenten’s arms and face. 

It was a good blade, but she has no time to mourn. She scrambles backwards, face screwing in panic, as the Sound Ninja swings down with his bone. Neji darts in, pressing a chakra strike in the space between the bones protruding out from Kimimaro’s shoulder blades. The bones there suddenly look different, less powerful weapons and more a horrific medical problem, and the enemy whirls around, stabbing at the space Neji had been. Tenten leaps up, running the jagged, shattered handle of her blade over his chest. It cuts right through the shoulder of the Sound ninja’s elegant white kimono, leaving a small streaking cut on his chest. Kimimaro kicks her, sending her backwards and raises his blade. 

A flash of green.

Kimimaro goes sailing through the air, Tenten glances over to Neji, staring incredulously at something behind her.

“Lee?” 

“Neji! Tenten! Do not worry, your teammate has finally arrived!” Lee flashes a bright grin, all sunshine and confidence. 

Tenten pulls herself to her feet. “Be careful Lee, he uses his bones as weapons.” 

“It’s a Kekkei Genkai,” Neji comments. “Get me an opening and I can try to halt his chakra flow.”

Lee springs into a kick, Kimimaro dodges backward. Neji attacks from behind aiming for chakra points on his arm. Tenten unseals a staff, long and metal, and tries to hit the enemy ninjas ankles. He spins, whirling his bone sword, and forces all of them back. Lee hits the ground hard, his kick missing by a mile, and Kimimaro thrusts his sword forward.

“Hold on! I need to take my medicine!” Tenten chokes as the enemy ninja freezes mid-strike and waits. “I’m truly sorry, but I have to take it at a certain time, which is now,” Lee rambles, rifling through his pouch. He takes out a small white bottle, uncorks it, and knocks the entire thing back, wincing. 

“That’s,” Lee says. “Was the worst medicine I’ve ever tasted.” He steps forward, wobbling, breaking into laughter as he stumbles backwards into the grass. Kimimaro moves, trying to start the fight once more, but Lee glances up, eyes half lidded, his ears flushed red. “Hey! What are you looking at, huh?”

Tenten goes white, Neji sighs loudly in exasperation. “Lee, you’re such a lightweight.” 

“How did you even mix up medicine with alcohol?” Tenten mutters to herself. 

Lee rocks forward, swaying uncertainly, offended by something about Kimimaro. When he attacks, he’s faster than usual, an ungraceful finesse to his movements. The enemy launches himself out of the way, right into Neji, who presses a burst of chakra to the other’s left arm, before darting away.

It’s a sickening sight, watching his bone harden, and become unresponsive to Kimimaro’s attempt to bring it back into his body. Blood starts to ooze around the bone where it sticks out into the open air, with his chakra points blocked there, his arm just becomes one anatomical disaster. 

Lee topples back into the grass, whining, and then starts to snore softly. Neji walks over, Kimimaro distracted by trying to fix his arm.

“Did Lee just fall asleep?” 

“Neji,” Lee slurs. “Shuuuush, I’mma surprise him.” 

The Hyuuga sighs exasperatedly, and then swings Lee through the air at the enemy. 

“Neji,” Tenten yells, an explosive tag in her hand. “Did you just throw our teammate at the enemy?"

Lee flies through the air, shrieking with laughter, and jabs two fists into Kimimaro’s abdomen, sending him keeling over. “I fooled you!” He slurs. “I was awake the entire time!” He lifts his leg into a kick, ramming his heel against the exposed bone of Kimimaro’s arm. It shatters, the enemy yelling in pain and skids backwards to slam against the white oak coffin. 

The barrel steams as he crashes into it, and bursts open, sending plumes of dark smoke up into the air. Sasuke emerges, skin grey, hair long and wild. 

“Uchiha,” Kimimaro snaps, cradling the broken remains of his arm. “Go to the border and I will concern myself with these shinobi to ensure your escape.” 

Sasuke turns, as the smoke fades; his curse seal fading away. “I think,” he begins, returning to a normal appearance. “You should be more worried about yourself.” 

“Sasuke,” Lee shouts across the field. “It is nice to see you!” 

“How is Sakura?” 

“She will be fine! We’re all here on her behalf!”

Kimimaro whirls around, an elegant fury on his features. “You did not come willingly?” 

“What do you think?” Sasuke replies, raising a fine eyebrow. His sharingan blinks on, swirling like blood in his eye. 

“But you are marked with Lord Orochimaru’s seal!” Kiminaro rants. “You are supposed to seek him out for power, you would be unrivaled! His ultimate vessel. What went wrong?” He babbles to himself, trying to figure out the cosmic question, why would Sasuke not drop everything to give himself up to his master?

Something flickers in Sasuke’s eyes at the word ‘power’, Neji catches the change across the field, and moves forward. He slams a chakra strike against Kimimaro’s exposed back. The white Sound ninja coughs, feeling the new damage in his lungs, and buckles to his knees. Gasping for breath, he makes one last ditch effort. “Uchiha,” he wheezes against the fluid filling up his lungs. “Lord Orochimaru can grant you power, achieve your wildest dreams, he—“ 

“Shut up,” Sasuke says lowly, disgust marring his face. 

Tenten slams the blunt end of her staff against his head, Kimimaro topples forward, unconscious, slowly drowning as his respiratory system fails. “Leave him,” Neji says. “We need to go back and check on the others.” 

Lee calls out, sober now. “Sasuke, let’s go home!” 

“Home,” Sasuke echoes, and they all turn South, leaving the border far behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER WAS A BEAST! It was approximately 34 pages and over 12 thousand words. 
> 
> It was also, super fun to write! I am under the impression that the Sasuke retrieval mission would have gone perfectly if the girls were there. Hinata and Kiba were the funnest to write this chapter, and Ino talking to Tayuya. 
> 
> Thank everyone again for the support! I love the comments and kudos!


	8. Cat and Mouse

Kumogakure folklore says Matatabi is the messenger of death itself. She can be found in the whisper of someone’s last breath, she’s the black cat in an alley with glowing eyes that grants blessings or a curse depending on her mood. Two Tails for two states, life and death, because everything in Kumo comes in pairs, adopted siblings, twin swords, two realms. The Matatabi jinchuuriki is a pair of souls, a cosmic being and a human wrapped into one body.

When Yugito was young, they called her kitten. After she turned fourteen, Chunin now, they called her other names: dangerous, distant, bad luck. Bee, a Jonin, would call her his good luck charm until she turned eighteen, when people stopped calling her bad luck and started calling her beautiful.  

(Personally, Yugito prefers bad luck over beautiful any day.)

Matatabi’s chakra rushes through her, concentrates in her limbs and digits, hums in her eyes until they turn green and blue, focusing on the _red green orange_ figures of the three genin. They are so small, young, and they haven’t seen half the things she has, learned the way of the world. Her cat eyes pick out the glint of chakra within the three. Gaara’s is the most prevalent, gold mixing with his natural blue reserves, humming under the surface and in his sand. Green chakra tints Fū core, like an insect in metamorphosis, dormant and quiet. The bloody pinprick of Kyuubi’s chakra is a tiny spot against Naruto’s navel. All three of them, disjointed and disconnected from their tailed beasts. Matatabi hums in disapproval, because Matatabi has never spoken a word in Yugito’s entire life, communicating in waves of emotions and glances.

When Yugito first met Matatabi, she was six years old, still nicknamed Kitten, and once she greeted the demon cat, the feline had glanced down, more regal and aloof than Yugito could have ever hoped to be, and went to sleep.

Now, with Matatabi at her back, power humming in her veins and a purr echoing in her head, Yugito feels pity for them, separated and distant from their Tailed Beasts.  A beat. A jaguar purrs in the sun. Naruto’s left hand twitches, itching to raise up into the seals of his shadow clone jutsu. She leaps before he can, disappearing into a blur. Her claws slash an inch away from the bridge his nose, Fū tugging the blonde back as they dance around behind Gaara’s sand.

Yugito fakes right, and then pivots left, darting through the opening in Gaara’s sand as it tries to chase her. Fū and a quintet of Naruto’s greet her, shadow clones. Four Konoha nin leap forward, Yugito swipes through them as if they were water, bursting them into puffs of white smoke. She ducks down, a stream of sand rocketing overhead slams right into Fū and Naruto.

“Gaara!” Naruto sputters indignantly.

Yugito laughs. “Remember,” she crows. “Teamwork.”

The Suna nin flashes with irritation, sand twitching back towards her. Fū and Naruto are still on the ground, and Yugito dashes forward. The green haired ninja rolls to her feet, hand flying to pull out a kunai, it screeches against the Yugito’s long chakra claws, but it stands no chance. She wrenches it out of Fu’s hands, who reels back defensively, arms raised in front of her face. Naruto comes barreling through the air over her, using her shoulder a support as he springs over her. There’s a clone at his side, hands jointed together by a humming blue ball of energy.

For a moment, Yugito freezes with shock. It looks like a Tailed Beast Ball, whirling destructive energy, the characteristic humming, a whisper of explosive power, but it’s the wrong color, bright blue, instead of the black purple. Naruto takes the advantage, Yugito barely dodges him as he collides into her. The jutsu humming in his hand slams into the ground, it roars in Yugito’s ears as it drills into the ground, ripping up earth and grass.

“Woah, would you look at that!” Naruto rambles excitedly, glancing around at the crater he left behind. “Pervy Sage would be—“

He breaks off midsentence as Yugito wrenches his arm back, claws skimming down his spine. She pulls him out of the crater, twisting his arm roughly, and slams him headfirst against a trunk of a nearby tree. He clatters to the forest floor like a house of cards, breath soft as if he had simply fallen asleep. He’ll be awake quick, no doubt about that, and Yugito needs to finish the game soon. Fū is darting across the clearing, Gaara’s sand at her heels. The green haired girl leaps up, a trio of shuriken in her hands. When she throws them at Yugito, they glow blue, coated with sticking chakra.

Yugito dodges the first two, the third skims against her arm, stinging and drawing a thin line of blood. Fū lands and spins into a taijutsu volley; she’s talented, fast, Yugito notes as she’s pushed on the defensive. The Taki ninja swings into a strike, but Yugito drops to the ground, knees buckled. Stumbling, Fū’s strike meets empty air. The Matatabi jinchuuriki rises up, claws glowing blue, and catches Fū by her extended wrist. She tosses the green haired girl across the field, where she lands roughly near the prone form of Naruto.

Just the red-head left now.

Yugito turns towards the last remaining ninja. Gaara had drifted away from her, creeping closer to his allies. Gaara’s sand flares up as she runs towards him, twisting defensively into a shield. Her chakra claws stop against it, useless against the sand. Fū is slowly trying to stumble back to her feet, Naruto is still reeling on the ground, Gaara stands alone. Yugito flares her chakra in her hands, her claws come alight with black and blue flame. They lick up against the sand, melting it into glass that drips into warped shapes on the ground. Gaara’s eye widen, glassy milky green, most of his sand shatters into tiny shards, and the remainder of his sand dances out of her reach.

Gaara himself tactically decides to run, standing near Fū. Her nose is dripping blood onto Naruto’s face, while she frantically tries to shake the blonde awake. His blue eyes blink open, and then he bolts upright. “What happened?”

“Yugito knocked you out and destroyed the rest of us. This is impossible!” Fū growls, her sunset eyes are hard like amber. Naruto, still dazed, looks put-out, twisting blades of grass between his fingers.

Yugito pauses. “You three are jinchuuriki, aren’t you? Work together and figure it out.” Something flashes in Fū’s eyes, bitter determination.  She tugs the hem of Gaara’s robe and gives him a look. The sand nin blinks, meets Fū’s insistent look and the last remainders of his sand rise up, shielding them from view.

She waits patiently, idly, like a cat waiting for prey, listening to the muffled whispers from Gaara’s shifting sand shield. Fū’s voice echoes the most, quickly whispering plans to her partners. Naruto’s exuberant shout of agreement is underscored by Gaara’s affirmative hum and Fū frantically shushing the blonde.

And then the sand shield falls, the three genin scatter in three directions: Gaara turns to the left, Fū charges towards Yugito with a determined grin, and Naruto disappears into the trees, leaving two clones behind in his wake.

The Taki genin catches Yugito with an ankle, hooking it around the other and pulling herself up into a kick. Yugito, trying to maintain her balance, raises her forearms into a block. Fū’s kick lands hard, pushing hard on her bracketed arms. She pushes back up, using Yugito’s arms as a springboard, kicking herself back into the air and slamming back down, both feet colliding roughly on her arms. Yugito pushes her back up again, planning to slice at her with her claws but—there, in the corner of her eye, a steady stream of sand racing towards her.

Yugito jumps left, Fū lands in the empty space where Yugito used to be, and panic rushes into her eyes as she lands in Gaara’s twisting sand. Gaara himself looks surprised, a slight shift of his features, which soon morphs into subdued alarm. His sand is overextended, he has too little of it to be of much use ever since Yugito set it aflame and turned it to glass. So when he noticed Yugito sprinting towards him, he has no sand to make a shield.

The Matatabi jinchuuriki swipes her claws against his chest, face, arms, and Gaara’s sand armor crumbles around him, sloughing off like flesh from a bone. The two Naruto clones come to his aid, but Yugito pops them in a cloud of smoke. The real Naruto is nowhere to be found, which is good, Gaara thinks, he’s sticking to Fū’s commands. Yugito leans back for another strike, Gaara raises his arms in a poor attempt to block. He can hear Baki’s voice in his head, he really does rely on his sand too much, he has little to no practical skill in taijutsu, and both of his siblings were the same as well.

Fū reaches out and pulls hard on Yugito’s flying braid, wrenching her neck back sharply, like a child would pull a cat’s tail. Yugito is wrenched back from Gaara, the bones in her neck cracking, chakra claws whispering against the tip of his nose. The Taki genin’s orange eyes are sparking as green as her hair. Her breath is harsh, panting roughly through her mouth, her hands are shaking, and as Yugito falls to the ground, she can’t tell if the girl is frustrated or on the verge of exhaustion.  Gaara’s sand, which has returned to him, snakes around her ankles, binding her down, and shines like honey and sandstorms, like liquid gold, and feels like it too. His eyes have flecks of color in them now, milky green and gold, bright like a precious stone.

There’s a humming in the woods, Yugito cranes her head as far as she can against Fū’s vice grip and Gaara’s snaking sand. Naruto appears in a red chakra shroud, a bloody stain against the forest. Red eyes, red shadows, the Rasengan in his hand is a vibrant purple, a mix of blood and blue.

Naruto charges forward, the chakra monstrosity in his hand, a streaking blur. Matatabi purrs, Yugito closes her mismatched eyes, feeling the acrid taste of chakra in humming in the air and settling on the back of her tongue. When she opens her eyes, they are back to her normal dark, deep brown.

“Initially, untrained jinchuuriki learn to tap into their tailed beast’s power through emotional distress or anger.” Yugito begins. Naruto stumbles in his charge, Rasengan fizzling out in his hands in surprise. Fū’s tight grip on Yugito’s hair goes slack. “This was my first lesson.”

A pause.

“Good job.”

Fū falls back in the grass and groans loudly, hair matching the crisp color of the grass. “I never want to do this again.”

“Seconded.” Gaara nods, his sand returning to him.

Naruto plops to the grass, one leg crossed over the other. The angry chakra shroud fades away from him an instant, leaving him all orange and sunshine. “I dunno,” he says. “I thought it was kind of fun.”  

“Fun?” Naruto looks sheepish at Fū’s sharp glance.

“You thought it was fun?” Yugito echoes. “I’ll be sure to do this again if you thought it was fun.”

Immediately, he backtracks. “Oh no,” Naruto sputters. “It was awful, let’s never ever do that again.”

A laugh bubbles in Yugito’s throat, genuine, and it startles her. It comes out as an awkward choking noise that causes Naruto to squint at her. “Are you okay? I didn’t think we went that hard on you, geez.”

“I’m fine,” she responds. The sun beaming down on her is unbelievably warm, pleasant. “We should head back to Bee’s house. Last one there faces me one on one.”

Fū scrambles up through the grass, kicking up dirt into the air and onto her knees. She takes to the trees, Naruto screaming at her heels and Gaara bringing up the rear.  Yugito follows after them, watching as Naruto and Fū wrestle over each other, both trying to be first, and both missing the fact that Gaara overtook them minutes ago.

Matatabi, for some reason, is still humming in her head, watching the youngest jinchuuriki with a purr. Yugito feels oddly content.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE!! Sorry about the wait! I just graduated college with my associates degree and I'll be graduating high school in about three weeks! To anyone still following this story, thank you for the kudos and comments! I will be updating at a more regular rate soon!!


	9. One of Eleven

In the chaos of the hospital, Sasuke hears about Chouji long before he sees him. More specifically, he hears Ino _scream_ when they roll him past on an emergency stretcher, the Hokage herself running after him; Shikamaru’s father follows in her steps, holding a massive tome of medicine emblazoned with the Nara clan symbol. He hears the horrified gasp as they bring in Kiba, pale and limp with blood loss, eyes glazing and spinning. Akamaru—his loyal companion—barely draws breath. Hinata enters after; a nurse slaps her with a diagnosis of chakra exhaustion and runs off to the operating room where the three jonin unlucky enough to run into the Sound Five are being kept. The Hyuuga heiress stands there almost lost, hands twisting anxiously until Lee comes to her rescue, sits her down and exuberantly declares that Neji is going to be fine. Her shoulders slump in relief, and then guilt flits across her features, and she glances anxiously back at the room where Kiba is being held. Hinata’s eyes have drained completely of their lavender tint, fading white as if she was blind. An exhausted Byakugan, overstrained; Sasuke wonders if it burns the same way the sharingan does.

The emergency backup team that had followed the genin out after Sasuke and the Sound nin were lucky enough to have found them in time. Particularly in the case of Chouji and Kiba, whose fate is still up in the air. For Sasuke, and the uninjured Ino and Shikamaru, it’s a tense waiting game, punctuated by the bustle of the emergency ward.

“Sasuke?” Sakura stands before him. His eyes dart to the crisp white bandaging of her injured arm. “You made it back,” she says, hushed. She attempts to draw him into a one-armed hug that Sasuke dodges.

“How badly did they hurt your arm?” It’s less of a question and more of a curious demand.

Sakura shrugs, the movement made awkward by the sling. “I’ll be better soon. The nurses said there shouldn’t be much damage to my chakra pathways.”  

Sasuke hums. Good. No lasting damage means she won’t slow what’s left of their team down.

“I’m glad you made it back…” Sakura says quietly, some unnamed emotion slips into her voice.

There’s a long pause. There’s never been much to say between the two of them, less so now that there’s an empty space that Naruto’s chatter can’t fill anymore. Sakura glances at the seat next to him, and then glances over to Ino, who’s crying softly into Shikamaru’s chunin jacket—which must have been given to her in lieu of actually crying into his shoulder.

“Go to her,” Sasuke says brusquely, Sakura’s eyes dart back to him in surprise. “I don’t care.”

An unsaid approval. Sakura sends him a hesitant smile and makes her way softly to Ino. In a rare moment of truce, the two kunoichi bow their heads together and talk in soft tones, punctuated by Ino’s quiet sobs.

Her teammate doesn’t cry. Shikamaru sits stiffly two seats down from Sasuke, his hands laced together and the knuckles a stark white, staring intently at the emergency operating room that Chouji is in.

“You know,” Shikamaru says, breaking the silence. “You can leave.”

It takes Sasuke a moment to realize Shikamaru is speaking to him. “What?”

“You can go,” the Nara responds. Something hard tints his voice. “You’re physically fine, there’s no need for you to wait around here. I know you don’t care about Chouji. The Hokage will send for you when she needs you.”

This version of Shikamaru is a far cry from the lazy, detached one that Sasuke remembers from his academy days. But the other is right, Sasuke hasn’t cared much about anything or anyone for years. Standing, Sasuke rolls his shoulders and rubs the chilled curse mark absentmindedly.

Shikamaru’s knuckles tighten further, bloodless. “Do you want to say something?” Sasuke prods, almost mockingly.

“If Chouji…doesn’t make it,” Shikamaru begins slowly. “And you somehow make your way back to Orochimaru, you’ll be making an enemy out of me.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“At the moment? Not at all.”

“Then why all the effort to come after me?”

Shikamaru scoffs bitterly; Sasuke gets the overwhelming feeling that he’s failed some sort of test. “You’re one of us, a Konoha nin. It’s really that simple, Uchiha. Even Naruto could understand that.”

The Nara rises, moves across the room to sit next to Ino, who relinquishes his tear-stained flak jacket back. The teammates engage in hushed, worried tones as they wait for news to come. Sakura talks to Hinata, with Lee loudly interjecting into their conversation in a manner that can only be described as grossly optimistic.

Sasuke leaves the hospital alone.

.

.

.

It takes one Hokage, four nurse staff, and nine hours in intensive surgery for the young Akimichi to be moved tentatively into a care unit. The moon is halfway through the sky, beginning to sink towards the horizon when Tsunade emerges to the exhausted, worried faces of Team 10.

“You kids should have gone home a long time ago,” she says, half a yawn. “He should make it.”

The blonde one, the Yamanaka, visibly relaxes in relief. “When can we see him?”

“Not tonight. He likely won’t wake up until tomorrow, and that would be early. Now, the two of you ought to get home.”

“He’ll recover fine?” Shikamaru interrupts. Tsunade recognizes the weight on his shoulders, the worry that furrows his brow.

“I don’t like to make promises, Nara,” she replies; Shikamaru tenses almost imperceptibly. “But believe me when I say that your teammate will pull through. When he wakes, I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear that his teammates first mission as a chunin was a success.” Clapping her hands on their shoulders, Tsunade steers the younger ninjas towards the door. “Now, get of here. I don’t want any of my staff to see you until tomorrow.”

The pair walks off, footsteps echoing off the tile. As they pass through the swinging doors out of the emergency ward, the Yamanaka and leans over and whispers, “Did the Hokage herself just compliment you?”

“Ach…that’s troublesome.”

The doors swing shut and Tsunade is left alone in the hallway. The ward is quiet—the on-call nurses pass like ghosts, bowing their heads as Tsunade begins to make her way to her tower. Konoha is quiet tonight. With over half of her jonin deployed, the tower has felt especially empty, with the occasional chunin dropping by to report in.  However, as she enters the dark space of her office, Tsunade realizes she is not alone.

“Taking a page from your sensei’s book, I see,” she sighs. “Kakashi likes to be unnecessarily dramatic as well.”

The young Uchiha perches like some dark bird of prey in one of the hard-backed chairs in front of her desk. His eyes, thankfully dark, watch her as she crosses the room and sits, sighing at the paperwork she still has yet to look at.

“I would have sent for you in the morning,” she begins, flipping open a sizeable manila file. “I assumed both of us would have wanted some rest before this conversation.”

“Someone planning to rest doesn’t come to an office to do paperwork.”

A short, sharp laugh bursts from Tsunade’s throat. “As Hokage, you live, breathe, and sleep paperwork.” Signing off on a file, she sets her pen down and meets eyes with the young Uchiha. “But that’s not why we’re here, is it?”

In the moonlight, with the glowing pale skin and the dark eyes, he reminds her of Orochimaru, a memory of the past. “From what I’ve gathered on you since I’ve become Hokage,” Tsunade begins. “and what I know about Orochimaru, I have a fairly good idea about what he’s offering to you.”

“Been watching me?”

“Uchiha, I can almost guarantee that someone’s been watching you for most of your life. The way this conversation goes will determine if you will be monitored as threat or not. Were you taken forcefully from the village?”

“Yes.”

Sasuke’s eyes are flat, hard to read, no matter how hard Tsunade peers into them. “Did you ever consider joining Orochimaru?”

The genin’s silence is answer enough.  

“What can he offer you that Konoha cannot?”

“Power,” Sasuke answers. Even just saying the word makes his voice sound dreamlike, far away, lost in thought. “A way to get stronger.”

“A way to kill your brother, you mean. The one trained in Konoha.”

It’s like a switch. Sasuke’s expressionless face twists into a scowl.  “I have to surpass him, I can’t do that here. I _need_ to get stronger—!”

“I don’t know what Naruto saw in you,” Tsunade interrupts. “What do you think he would have done if he knew what you almost did?”

“Naruto isn’t here!” His eyes flash red. The bloody gaze of the Sharingan glares back at her. “He’s _gone._ No one can find him, and if… _Itachi_ has him he’s probably already dead!” He spits out Itachi’s name like poison, laced with rage and spite, tinged with loss.

He reminds Tsunade too much of Orochimaru. Young, angry, a prodigious orphan with nothing except a purpose and the semblance of a team. It’s an echo of the past, history bound to repeat itself—unless she does something.

Orochimaru is a lost cause but the child in front of her is not.

“Orochimaru was my teammate for a very long time,” Tsunade begins, leaning forward onto her desk. Sasuke’s burning eyes follow the motion intently, he simultaneously looks invested in what she has to say, but also ready to run at a given moment. “A genin team will always know each other better than any other ninja, it’s a benefit really, to have a team play off each other’s strengths and cover their weaknesses. I know a lot about Orochimaru, but the most important thing I realized is that he is pathetic. A powerful, dangerous foe, yes, but ultimately a traitor, a terrible, shameful person. He’s tortured, killed, experimented on children—just to test his abilities. Orochimaru’s quest for power has left him twisted, empty. He’s worse than your brother.”

“Worse...” Sasuke begins slowly, his voice hums with subdued anger. “Worse? Itachi took everything from me. My parents, my clan, and now my team. He has to pay.”

“I didn’t say you shouldn’t kill him,” Tsunade says. Sasuke glances up in her in surprise; she wonders if this is the first time someone hasn’t told him that he shouldn’t. “As Hokage, I have to say that your brother should be brought back to trial. As myself, I would say that it’s family business. It doesn’t matter either way if you bring him back dead or alive. That’s your decision.”

A flurry of emotion crosses the young Uchiha’s face, his sharingan dims, but his shoulders still twitch as if he’s heaving for breath. He seems too small for this amount of rage, it overwhelms him. In wake of Sasuke’s silence, she continues, “What you choose to do is up to you, but if you turn away from Konoha, you’ll inevitably just be doing what he wants. Be better than him. There are other ways to find strength.”

“And what would those be?”

Tsunade laughs, it startles the other. Sasuke leans back, brows furrowed. “You have Konoha,” she points at his _hitai-ate._ “While you wear that headband, you will always have the force of a village, the company of a team, and the strength of companions behind you. Orochimaru and Itachi? They’re alone. You are not.”

“You…sound like Naruto.”

“He believed in Konoha,” Tsunade says. Out of her window the stone faces of the previous Hokage watch over the village, watching over her. “And he made me remember when I had forgotten what it meant.”

Sasuke stands slowly, as if his thoughts weigh him down. “I’m leaving.”

“What are you going to do?”

Sasuke’s fingers ghost over the metal front of his headband. “I’m going to stop my brother, find Naruto…but there’s something else I have to do.”

He leaps out of her window, plummeting into the night.

Tsunade watches him go. There’s a voice in her head that sounds unnervingly like Jiraiya; it reminds her that Naruto is reportedly thriving across the continent, but Sasuke doesn’t need to know that. A wave of guilt rises, but Tsunade squashes it down immediately. If it keeps the Uchiha loyal, she’ll just have to live with it.  

Maybe she’ll make a good Hokage after all.

.

.

.

Chouji wakes up to the bright rays of a sunny morning and a series of smiling faces. He feels as if he’s been bruised all the way down to the bone, and then some.

“Aaah!” Ino shrieks in joy. “You’re awake!” She throws herself into a one-sided hug, wrapping around his free arm. Chouji winces as a flare of pain shoots up his arm. “I was so worried about you!”

“How are you feeling?” Shikamaru asks.

“Terrible!” Chouji smiles up at his teammate, a playful understanding passing between them.

A hand settles on Chouji’s head, digging into the hair.

“It’s good to see you awake.”

Chouji glances up to meet the face of his sensei. “When did you get back?”

“Late last night,” Asuma smiles. “And to my surprise I found out that you were here, what else did you three get up to while I was gone?”

There’s something strained in his eyes, as if the sight of one of his genin, broken and stretched thin, sinking into the hospital bed troubles Asuma more than he lets on. It’s echoed in Ino and Shikamaru as well, as if they get upset every time they look at Chouji.

The Akimichi frowns. “How bad do I look?”

“Like one of Ino’s diets gone wrong,” Shikamaru snorts dryly.

“Hey!”

“No,” Chouji mock gasps. “It can’t be that bad.”

“You two are rude,” Ino pouts.

“Those things aren’t good for you,” Shikamaru replies.

“I guess we’ll need to get some food into both of you,” Asuma ruffles the top of Ino’s hair. “Chouji, we’ll go pick you up some lunch. On me.”

Someone knocks on the door.

There’s a pause. Ino swings the door open to reveal a dark figure.

“Sasuke?” 

The Uchiha looks drastically out of place. Stiff, eyes darting almost nervously between each person. He casts a shadow in the bright room. Even Asuma seems startled by his appearance. 

“Sasuke!” Chouji breaks the silence, his thin, drawn face still managing to put on a shining grin. “Come in! What brings you here?”

Sasuke moves to stand over the bed, looking down on Chouji’s skeletal frame.

“You defeated one of the Sound nin.”

Chouji’s eyes widen, “That I did. It wasn’t very easy though.”

“I…” Sasuke pauses around the word. “Thank you?”

“He shouldn’t say it like a question,” Shikamaru murmurs.

“It was no problem, seriously!” Chouji replies, trying to speak over Shikamaru.

“No problem?” Sasuke seems confused. “You risked your life.”

“You’re one of us after all, Sasuke,” Chouji smiles. “It’s the least I can do.”

Sasuke seems struck, lost in thought. Asuma claps a hand on the genin’s shoulder and Sasuke jumps, startled back to reality. “Why don’t you come and get food with us, we’re bringing some back to Chouji.”

“That’s a wonderful idea!” Ino cries, latching herself to Sasuke’s arm. “We can go to the flower shop after and pick something up. Sasuke, once we bring it back we can go to—”

“Ino,” Chouji whines. “Leave the poor guy alone and go get me barbeque!”

“Barbeque?” Asuma interrupts. “That’s pretty expensive…what if we got—”

Asuma and his two genin descend into a whirlwind of noise. In the chaos of the room, Sasuke locks eyes with Shikamaru, who stands quietly to the side. Shikamaru’s face is a blank slate apart from the intensity of his eyes and the furrow of his brow. He glances at Chouji, then back at Sasuke, and something relaxes in the shape of his shoulders. He nods once in Sasuke’s direction, and then turns. “Asuma-sensei, are you paying for all of us or just Chouji?”

“You kids are going to bankrupt me!”

One of us, Chouji had said. Shikamaru had said the same thing. Sasuke doesn’t know what to make of it, but watching Team 10 bicker and laugh together, maybe he’s beginning to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooOOH MY GOSH GUYS HELLO! It's been OVER a year since I've touched this project and I wanted to apologize! It's been a busy year! I just finished my freshman year of university and while busy, it's been super fun! Thank you to everyone who continued to read and support this fic, and I will say that it will continue to be worked on! I'm planning to have a ton more time this summer to write for you guys!


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